LIVE: Evolving Paradigms in Infectious Disease Diagnostics: Tissue-Based Testing to Non-Invasive Advanced Molecular Platforms

LIVE WEBINAR: October 6, 2026 | 1:00pm - 2:00pm ET

This course contains the link to the live webinar (sent via Zoom), the webinar recording, slide handout, and continuing education credit (CME and CMLE).

Description:

Diagnosing invasive fungal disease (IFD) in immunocompromised transplant and oncologic patients remains a significant challenge. Given the high morbidity and mortality associated with IFDs, rapid and accurate diagnosis is crucial. Conventional culture-based methods which require an invasive biopsy and serum fungal biomarkers that are non-invasive lack sensitivity and specificity. In the past decade, targeted plasma cell-free DNA PCR panels and untargeted metagenomics next-generation sequencing (mNGS) have emerged for laboratory diagnosis of IFD. Despite their promise, questions remain about their performance and how to optimally integrate these technologies into clinical practice and their impact on patient outcomes. This webinar session will discuss the accuracy of fungal cell-free DNA diagnostics, their clinical impact, and the role of diagnostic stewardship.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the evolution of infectious disease diagnostics from conventional methods (e.g., microscopy, culture, histopathology) to non-invasive advanced molecular technologies.
• Compare the performance and clinical utility of targeted molecular assays (e.g., PCR, syndromic panels) versus emerging approaches such as metagenomic sequencing. 
• Evaluate the advantages and limitations of molecular diagnostics in detecting pathogens from complex clinical samples.
• Apply best practices for test selection, interpretation, and integration of molecular results into clinical decision-making.
• Discuss current challenges and future directions in molecular infectious disease diagnostics, including stewardship, cost-effectiveness, and workflow optimization.