THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
Why Prenetics is a trusted choice for COVID-19 testing solutions
Getting Britain back to work
Over the last three months, my team and I have been working tirelessly on Project Screen by Circle to help Britain get back work in the midst of COVID-19. On Wednesday 17th June, we all took a well-deserved break to watch the Premier League resume play.
We did it. We played our part in getting the Premier League back on TV.
The Premier League was the first UK-based employer for whom Prenetics provided an end-to-end COVID-19 testing solution.
For context, I’m the founder of the UK genetics company DNAfit which has been at the forefront of innovation since 2013. We have two Queen’s Awards and have a great many other accolades to our name. DNAfit was acquired by Prenetics in 2018, and since then, we have launched CircleDNA, the world’s most comprehensive DNA test.
Prenetics is based in Hong Kong and has a unique insight into how COVID-19 unfolded around the world. With a mission centred around providing a brighter health outlook for millions of people, we were able to augment our genetics business and include COVID-19 testing as part of our product portfolio, especially in the pursuit of helping employers get back to work.
As CEO of Prenetics EMEA, I wanted to share insight into the robustness of the solution for the Premier League Project Restart and some considerations that contribute towards a project of this kind.
Learnings from APAC
Prenetics is founded out of Hong Kong. The Hong Kong office gave us visibility into how the virus affected the Asia Pacific region and put us on the front foot when it came to addressing the UK.
Through the leadership of our parent company and the deep experience relating to other viral diseases, we were very quickly able to position our combined COVID-19 experience together with our testing service capability to provide an end-to-end solution in the fight against COVID-19.
Through a formal process, we engaged with the Premier League and successfully were granted the directive to safely deliver a solution for players, support staff and identified club members across a National footprint for 20 clubs.
Lab-based expertise
Genetic testing is within a lab-based environment concerning the analysis of a DNA sample and the interpretation of the data within. In the case of CircleDNA and DNAfit, we use a medical swab to collect DNA from the side of the cheek.
Project Screen by Circle uses a swab-based protocol
Our labs and processes are upheld to the ISO15189 and ISO17025 standards. This ensures the integrity of the data and the security of the results delivery — both vital factors for Project Restart.
Trusted by the world’s biggest brands and sports teams
Prenetics is the provider of DNA tests for Bupa, HSBC, Aetna, ADIDAS and LinkedIn, amongst other established corporations. We’ve also worked with the Egyptian Football Association, UK-based football teams and Rio Ferdinand in recent years. This gave us an expert perspective on what a successful testing solution for clubs would look like.
Our staff also includes several Olympians, so we understand the emotional connection between both the athlete and their game, public and the spectacle.
The highest emphasis on accuracy and data privacy
In Project Screen, we work in tandem with our clients to serve whatever clinical protocol their medical board require. This could mean providing multiple retests on different analysers for any positive case while the individual isolates, in order to help the client’s clinical oversight group build a full picture of every case, assisting in making the most informed safety decision.
This is similar in DNA testing: If you’re supplying sensitive data to an individual it’s essential that there is no margin for error. Part of standard operating procedure at Prenetics is ‘Red Teaming,’ where we challenge our systems to find weaknesses so that we can become stronger in the face of an attack. Our technology framework is certified to ISO27001 which validates the security standards that we work to.
As such, our COVID-19 tests are highly accurate, with that percentage increasing if more tests are taken. In the case of the Premier League, tests are performed twice a week to ensure rigour.
Digital results delivery
What’s important to the employer is a ‘clear’ or ‘not clear’ result assigned to an employee. However, the underlying process is complex: It involves sample collection, timely delivery of that sample to a lab, data collection and analysis, and the delivery of the results.
Both the sequence of events and the encryption of these results is comparable to our hallmark genetics process, ensuring that teams got the information they needed in the time required.
Vision for the Nation
We’ve seen first hand how rewarding it’s been to get football back on TV and how other sports have started to follow suit. We’ve also seen the confidence a clean bill of health has given players.
I firmly believe that it’s this confidence that will get the UK working again and will help to get our economy back on track. I encourage you to follow my social media so you can see how our endeavours progress.
