Original from: 360dx

Becton Dickinson announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with digital health firm Camtech Health to increase cervical cancer screening in Singapore through self-collection of samples. 

The program combines the Camtech Health HPV test for self-collection with the BD Onclarity HPV assay for detecting 14 high-risk human papillomavirus strains, BD said in a statement. The program's goal is to improve the rate of cervical cancer screening in Singapore. 

Samples collected with the Camtech Health HPV test kits will be analyzed using the Onclarity assay and the BD Viper LT molecular testing system, and physician-reviewed results will be provided on the Camtech Health app, Camtech Chairman Kuok Meng-Han said in a statement. The Onclarity assay tests for an extended set of HPV types individually, including HPV52 and HPV33/58, which BD said pose a high risk for causing cervical cancer in Singapore.

"For women in Singapore, lack of time, embarrassment, fear and inconvenience are among the key barriers to screening, and before now, Singapore only offered HPV testing via hospital or clinic settings with a speculum examination and a clinician collection," Jeff Andrews, VP of global medical affairs at BD, said in a statement. "Not only does self-collection afford women greater access to HPV testing by enabling them to collect a sample in privacy at a time and place of their choosing, but they can also feel confident that the reliability of self-collected samples is comparable to those collected by a clinician." 

BD received CE marking for the Onclarity test's use with at-home sample self-collection in 2021.

Source: Becton Dickinson, Camtech Health Partner to Increase Cervical Cancer Screening in Singapore