INNOBLOG

One of the major ongoing themes driving the disruption of healthcare as we know it is decentralization of health services, as many types of care move from the specialist provider to the general practitioner to the home. In the news this week is another chapter in this evolution.

While the task of preventing conception has long since migrated out from behind the pharmacy counter, to date the job of diagnosing infertility has been the province of specialist providers alone. According to Debora Spar, a Harvard Business School professor who studies the business of reproduction, fertility clinics took in $2.7 billion in 2002, and they are expecting robust growth as couples continue to delay starting families.

This month Genosis, a UK based biotech company, launched Fertell in the US, a his-and-hers at home fertility test that aims to bring fertility testing to the masses. And the masses might be interestedaccording to the CDC, 12% of women of childbearing age (15-44) and nearly 30% of adult men have experienced infertility.

For women, Fertell works by measuring levels of FSH (Follicle Stimulating Hormone), an indicator of the ability of the ovaries to produce eggs for fertilization. For men the test kit measures sperm motility, a likely cause of male infertility. The test is sold at drugstores and retails for around $100.

Fertell doesnt look at all causes of infertility such as irregular luteinizing hormone, estrogen, and progesterone, and is only 95% accurate (as opposed to >99% in doctor administered blood tests). However, the key benefits of the "good enough Fertell offering read like a page in the disruptive-innovation-in-healthcare playbook: competing against non-consumption in early detection of infertility, patient-managed care, privacy and convenience, speed and low cost.