Fast diagnostics could prevent 36,200 deaths and 84,400 sepsis cases annually in the United States, modelled analysis shows

SALT LAKE CITY, April 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- bioMérieux, a world leader in in vitro diagnostics, announces the publication of a multi-country health economic analysis assessing the impact of deploying fast identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (ID/AST) early in the care pathway for patients with bloodstream infections at high-risk of sepsis.

The analysis is the first to provide evidence that early use of fast diagnostics can reduce preventable deterioration into sepsis, improve patient outcomes, and generate substantial cost savings for healthcare systems consistently across all studied countries. Conducted by the Office of Health Economics (OHE), one of the world's leading independent health economics research organizations, the analysis examined healthcare systems across Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

"Every year, over 884,000 Americans are hospitalized with bloodstream infections. Our analysis shows that early diagnostics could prevent 84,400 from deteriorating into sepsis and save 36,200 lives. These findings support the priorities laid out in US sepsis and antimicrobial stewardship policies, and they demand action. At bioMérieux, we are committed to ensuring that every patient receives the right diagnostic at the right time and hope this will further encourage governments, payers, and health systems to advance structural reforms needed to expand timely access to fast ID/AST," explains John Osiecki, PhD, Vice President, Medical Affairs, North America, bioMérieux.

Unmet Needs in Sepsis Management
Sepsis, a life-threatening reaction to an infection, is responsible for 21 million deaths globally each year.ⁱ In the United States, sepsis is associated with at least 350,000 adult deaths or discharges to hospice each year and contributes to over a third of all hospital deaths.ⁱⁱ The initial hours of sepsis management are critical, and targeted antibiotic treatment is a key determinant of survival. Yet conventional diagnostic methods take two to three days to deliver results, forcing high-stakes treatment decisions with incomplete information.ⁱⁱⁱ

As a result, nearly 1 in 5 bloodstream infection patients receive an inappropriate initial treatment increasing the risk of deterioration and driving higher costs for the hospital and health system.^iv

The model-based health economic analysis evaluates what would happen if fast ID/AST were systematically used early in the care pathway before clinical deterioration occurs. Built using real‑world hospital data from France, the health economic evaluation incorporates epidemiology, care pathways, costs, progression to sepsis, mortality, and long‑term consequences over a 13‑month time frame. It was then validated and adapted for each G7 country using local data inputs including incidence, diagnostic testing patterns, and country‑specific healthcare costs, together with clinical expert review to ensure alignment with national practices and standard of care. Across Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the findings are consistent.

Faster Identification Significantly Improves Patient Outcomes
Previous studies have demonstrated that fast ID/AST technologies can return actionable diagnostic results within less than 30 hours, substantially shortening time‑to‑results compared to the standard of care in each country. The OHE analysis builds on this established evidence by quantifying the clinical impact of deploying these faster diagnostics early in the care pathway.

Across all seven countries, the results from the model-based health economic evaluation show that early access to diagnostic information can prevent thousands of patients with bloodstream infection from progressing to sepsis or septic shock annually. Notably, the number of reported sepsis cases fell by an average of more than 20%. This leads to fewer sepsis related deaths and a significant reduction in long-term post sepsis complications, improving patient's quality of life.

A System-Wide Return on Investment
Across all G7 countries, the evaluation shows that deploying fast ID/AST early in the care pathway is consistently cost saving, regardless of how each health system is structured or financed.

Importantly, 53% to 83% of all savings occur during the initial hospitalization, when the clinical and economic consequences of deterioration are most concentrated^[v] because early diagnostic information prevents the likelihood that patients progress into one of the most resource intensive stages of sepsis care.

Fast ID/AST deliver an estimated $3,400 in cost savings per patient in the United States, totaling approximately $3 billion in annual savings. These savings are driven primarily by fewer ICU admissions, shorter hospital stays, and reduced management of severe complications, and reflect both avoided acute phase costs and reduced long-term complications.^iv

The Case for Policy Change
Today, diagnostics represent only a small fraction of healthcare spending, yet remain constrained by value frameworks that fail to capture their broader health system and population-level impact, bundled reimbursement models that treat them as costs rather than value generating tools, and misaligned incentives where laboratories bear the expense while savings are realized by other parts of the health system.

"Our health economic analysis demonstrates that these diagnostics deliver substantial value for both patients and health systems, far exceeding their upfront cost. This provides US policymakers with a clear, evidence-based rationale to rethink how diagnostics are valued and funded," says Dr. Sophie Vandepitte, Global Director Market Access Strategy at bioMérieux and Postdoctoral Researcher in Health economics and Management at Ghent University.

This call for policy change is already gaining traction in current US policy priorities: the US National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria calls for advancing the development and use of rapid and innovative diagnostic tests^vi while CDC is urging hospitals to strengthen sepsis programs to improve early recognition and treatmentⁱⁱ. Together, these signals reinforce the need to update reimbursement structures, strengthen diagnostic capacity, align incentives, and embed fast testing early in clinical pathways so that patients benefit when it matters most.

The full article, The Value of Fast Diagnostics in Time-Critical Infections: A Use Case in Bloodstream Infections and Sepsis, is available at: https://www.ohe.org/publications/the-value-of-fast-diagnostics-in-time-critical-infections/

ABOUT BIOMÉRIEUX 
Pioneering Diagnostics
A world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics since 1963, bioMérieux is present in 46 countries and serves more than 160 countries with the support of a large network of distributors. In 2025, revenues reached €4.1 billion, with over 94% of sales outside of France.

bioMérieux provides diagnostic solutions (systems, reagents, software and services) which determine the source of disease and contamination to improve patient health and ensure consumer safety. Its products are mainly used for diagnosing infectious diseases. They are also used for detecting microorganisms in agri-food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products.
www.biomerieux.com.

ⁱ Gray A, Chung E, Hsu R et al. Global, regional, and national sepsis incidence and mortality, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis. The Lancet Global Health, 2025

ⁱⁱ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Hospital Sepsis Program Core Elements. January 31, 2025. Accessed March 27, 2026. (cdc.gov)

ⁱⁱⁱ Bauer, K.A., Perez, K.K., Forrest, G.N. and Goff, D.A., 2014. Review of rapid diagnostic tests used by antimicrobial stewardship programs. Clinical Infectious Diseases: An Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 59 Suppl 3, pp.S134-145. DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciu547.

^iv Kadri, S.S., Lai, Y.L., Warner, S., Strich, J.R., Babiker, A., Ricotta, E.E., Demirkale, C.Y., Dekker, J.P., Palmore, T.N., Rhee, C., Klompas, M., Hooper, D.C., Powers, J.H., Srinivasan, A., Danner, R.L. and Adjemian, J., 2021a. Inappropriate Empiric Antibiotic Therapy in Bloodstream Infections at U.S. Hospitals based on Discordant In vitro Susceptibilities: A Retrospective Cohort Analysis of Prevalence, Predictors and Mortality Risk. The Lancet. Infectious diseases, 21(2), pp.241–251. DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30477-1.

^v Hassan S., Hamlyn T., Fong H., Hampson G. 2026. The Value of Fast Diagnostics in Time-Critical Infections. OHE Contract Research Report, London: Office of Health Economics

^vi U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, 2020–2025. Washington, DC: HHS; 2020. (hhs.gov)

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