Despite the deployment of new technologies, physicians report unmet diagnostic needs in the field of infectious disease, according to a study published in the January issue of Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease. Surveyed physicians specifically say there is a need for improved tests to identify drug-resistant organisms, while acknowledging that emerging high-complexity testing must be judiciously used. Microbiology laboratories are undergoing rapid transformation with the employment of new diagnostic technologies, including broad-range polymerase chain reaction (PCR), next-generation sequencing, and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry. However, even with these advancements in diagnostic methods, notable gaps remain in test development for rapid, point-of-care tests, those using direct from specimen analysis, and the ability to maintain high levels of accuracy across a wide range of disease syndromes. Researchers surveyed infectious disease physicians who were members of the Emerging Infections Network to evaluate perceptions of “unmet” needs (defined as either testing not available in the respondent’s clinical practice or situations when test results are not available in a clinically meaningful timeframe). In addition to ranking unmet needs related to certain syndromes (central nervous system infection, community-acquired pneumonia, febrile neutropenia, infectious diarrhea, culture-negative endocarditis) and six pathogens (drug resistant gram-negative bacilli, methicillin-resistant […]