In the healthcare sector, ESG has primarily been considered a reporting metric, but in diagnostics, it is evolving into an operating metric that informs our practices, health equity and patient trust.
 
For most patients, the diagnostic journey is a process that starts with a sample and ends with a report. What is invisible is the enormous system that underpins each test, from laboratory operations and quality systems to logistics, consumables, digital platforms and biomedical waste management. As diagnostic networks expand, so is our responsibility to manage this system responsibly.
 
Responsibility needs to grow in line with the diagnostics industry.
 
From an environmental perspective, laboratories today are conducting higher volumes than ever before, highlighting concerns of waste management, resource management and efficiency. It is in these subtle improvements to our daily operations, the reduction in plastic, the bolstering of biomedical waste procedures, an increased focus on digitisation to reduce paper, or incorporating sustainability in procurement decisions, that some of the greatest sustainability gains will be made, rather than large singular initiatives.
 
From a social perspective, ESG also carries great significance, particularly in a nation as large and diverse as India.
 
India today is facing a rise in lifestyle and chronic diseases; non-communicable diseases make up almost two-thirds of all deaths in India. In truth, health systems cannot afford to only offer a service of treatment, they must also increasingly focus on prevention and early intervention.
 
Awareness, however, remains an issue. Accessibility too is another major issue that thousands face today, be it in the small towns and rural hinterlands or underserved sections of our society. At times it is distance, at times limited awareness, and very often it is seeking diagnosis when symptoms become too hard to ignore.
 
It is in these areas where diagnostics can offer valuable contributions. Through healthcare partnerships, health camps, home collection services, teleconsultation support, and increased outreach, the industry is taking much-needed health services to populations it has traditionally neglected.
 
Our progress in diagnostics will not be measured by the number of tests that we do, but by the number of health risks that we identify that were detected early enough to make a difference. Our work as an industry extends beyond a mere delivery of a report; it is about raising awareness, driving accessibility and providing a framework to take preventive action. With an informed patient who has made choices about their health based on reliable information, both patient outcomes and the health system become more sustainable.
 
Governance, however, is not a concern that the patient can ever see, and yet, it is possibly the very foundation upon which this entire industry relies.
 
On the surface, an easy diagnostic report can appear deceptively simple; but the process behind it incorporates rigorous quality controls, laboratory standards, compliance policies, auditing trails, data protection mechanisms and operational controls, all of which most patients may never even interact with, and yet over which they place an immense amount of trust each day.
 
Trust is one of the biggest commodities for diagnostics and takes years to earn and moments to lose; this is why accountability, transparency, accuracy of our clinical results, patient confidentiality and our commitment to quality standards will always be as critical to the growth of this industry as expansion and innovation. With the increasing influence of AI and advanced technologies in the health sector, the importance of solid governance structures to ensure ethically driven, trusted innovations is only going to rise.
 
It is the interconnection of these issues today that is remarkable; sustainability, health access, governance and business objectives and operational efficiencies are often discussed separately, but they are in fact inseparable elements within each other day in and day out.
 
The values that underpin ESG in many ways reflect exactly what a healthcare service should provide: enhanced awareness, accessibility, affordability and accuracy; in that sense, ESG for diagnostics is not an independent agenda, but rather an extension of the industry's responsibility to its patients and its communities.
 
The future of diagnostics will not simply be determined by the size of our lab networks, the efficiency of our turn-around time or even the sophistication of our technology, but will be shaped by our capacity to balance these aspects with the responsibility that comes with providing these critical health services; it will be less about whether ESG matters and more about how deeply it can become embedded in our everyday operations to create long-term value for patients, communities and the healthcare industry.

Views expressed are personal