OMED Health ("OMED"), part of Owlstone Medical ("Owlstone"), the global leader in Breath Biopsy® for applications in early disease detection and precision medicine, and Welbeck Health Partners ("Welbeck"), one of the UK's largest specialist outpatient healthcare providers, today announced that Welbeck has adopted OMED Health's home-based Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) breath-testing pathway. The roll out across Welbeck's network follows a three-month evaluation where the pathway was assessed for performance and impact on standard of care.
Under the pathway, a Welbeck clinician requests a SIBO test for a patient via the OMED clinical practitioner portal. Patients receive a home-testing kit containing the OMED Health Breath Analyzer, instructions for the companion app, and either a glucose or lactulose substrate. The patient performs the breath test at home, and the results are delivered real-time and are reviewed and interpreted by an in-house OMED Health GI doctor to minimize the burden on the ordering clinician. The test results and diagnosis are returned to Welbeck's clinicians through the practitioner portal for follow-up.
An estimated 17% of adults in the UK suffer from IBS symptoms, which are often caused by SIBO or other gastrointestinal disorders. As a result, many patients experience prolonged delays in receiving an accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment. Although SIBO can be treated through antibiotics, supplements, or dietary changes, access to diagnostic testing remains limited. By allowing SIBO testing to be completed at home, the OMED pathway is designed to improve access and convenience for Welbeck's patients and to streamline the route from referral to result.
Dr. Devinder Bansi, Consultant Gastroenterologist and founding partner of Welbeck, said: "Home-based testing makes SIBO analysis much more accessible for our patients, many of whom would otherwise need to arrange a dedicated clinic visit. Additionally, having specialist diagnosis included as part of the service means our consultants can confidently follow up with their patients and expedite care. After working with the OMED pathway over the past few months, we were satisfied that it supports the quality and standard of care our patients expect from Welbeck and so have chosen to make it available more widely across our network."
Too many people living with debilitating digestive symptoms wait far longer than they should for diagnosis and a clear treatment plan. This partnership shows how that can change: through home-based SIBO testing, with expert diagnosis handled by our team, Welbeck is widening access to specialist digestive care without adding burden to busy referring clinicians. We are delighted to be working with Welbeck and see this partnership as a model for making SIBO testing part of routine care."
Billy Boyle, co-founder and CEO, Owlstone Medical
The OMED Health Breath Analyzer used in the pathway carries UKCA marking, and the service is delivered under Owlstone Medical's Care Quality Commission (CQC) registration.