Summary

Clostridium difficile-associated colitis is a disabling, and potentially life-threatening infection.  Moreover, hospitals spend great resources in isolating patients with this disease to prevent infection within the hospital.
 
This new technology from Cepheid offers faster, and more accurate diagnosis, leading to potentially quicker treatment for patients, but potentially huge savings for hospitals, that can shorten isolation periods for these patients. 

Analysis

 C. difficile associated diarrhea (CDAD) and colitis is disabling and potentially lethal.
 
This new technology from Cepheid offers more rapid and accurate diagnosis of the infection.  This allows for faster treatment of patients, and allows hospitals to take patients who do not have CDAD out of isolation faster, rather than the several days that can take between ordering the test and the two or three negative tests that are often needed before removing isolation precautions.
 
For larger hospitals with high volumes of patients, there could be significant potential savings over current technology.

Analyses are solely the work of the authors and have not been edited or endorsed by GLG.