Earlier this year, a Collaboration Agreement between India's Central TB Division (CTD), Ministry of Health, Government of India and the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics was signed with the aim to demonstrate and address the introduction of new, rapid and quality-assured diagnostic tests for TB at affordable prices for the public health sector.

The programme of activities includes:

• establishing a working collaboration with the CTD, Ministry of Health and the Government of India in order to undertake Demonstration Projects and develop strategies for the adoption of diagnostic innovations
• performing demonstration studies based on FIND's ISO-based project management system, thus facilitating the transfer of technical know-how and enabling eventual self-sustainability in other similar projects.

Demonstration Projects are large-scale studies conducted in controlled settings and are intended to provide evidence that new tests that perform well in these settings can have an important medical and public health impact when implemented.

These projects aim to demonstrate the feasibility, scaled-up performance, patient and/or public health impact and, where possible, the cost-effectiveness of using new technologies. The ability of new diagnostic tests to deliver these benefits is not always evident on the basis of analytic data or controlled trials of test performance.

Data from these studies permit organizations such as the WHO to recommend these tests for routine use, and to provide ministries of health and other purchasers with valid reasons to implement the tests in national infectious disease control programmes.