The Fallacy of Proprietary Science

Editor’s Note: This article was written by John Shultz, senior director of sales and marketing at bioMérieux.

The only true limitation that exists in the scientific community is one that we create for ourselves — and that is the idea that all knowledge is a proprietary advantage, not to be shared.

Research and development investments and the resulting breakthroughs they allow help to differentiate competitors and fuel innovation, but this should not come at the expense of human health. The scientific community shares a deeply held belief in the vital role that science plays in enhancing the quality of our day-to-day lives. New discoveries help to progress our collective understanding of the world around us and enable the development of advanced technologies which, in turn, help us fuel future discoveries.

It is this virtuous cycle of sharing and development that pushes our society forward, and it is my belief that the next wave of advancement will come from interconnected industry players sharing microbiology information openly for the benefit of all.

Advancements in tools and technologies have dramatically increased our capabilities to collect new types of data from multiple sources and analyze complex information in real time. This empowers the diagnostic community to move from a “react and respond” model to a “predict and prevent” approach. We refer to this approach as augmented diagnostics.

The notion of creating an augmented capability has been a goal for centuries. An example to help illustrate this point comes from the evolution in the last century of weather forecasting.

Imagine that 120 years ago, you were running a weather station in Galveston, Texas. The limited data collection tools that existed at this time would have provided only remedial insight to you about your singular point on the map. Telegraph transmission from other ground-based weather stations would tell you nothing about patterns developing out at sea. The result of this incomplete picture of the world around you created a failure to predict disastrous weather events like the hurricane of 1900, leading to countless lives lost. The information about the impending storm wasn’t available to determine if inbound weather was going to be as small as a thunderstorm or truly devastating.

Over time, as tools advanced, weather stations combined their data from local and regional geographies, governments consolidated this information in one place and scientists worked to identify the variables of cause and effect. As a result, weather models improved significantly, and the shared data enabled scientists to better serve society. Now, we know with much higher certainty that a hurricane is headed for a location within roughly a 10-day window. This gives significant time to communicate for preparedness efforts.

This is where we are in terms of augmented diagnostics in microbiology. We’re at the point now where we’re moving from a “single weather station” to “weather prediction,” but this momentum is often inhibited by a hesitation to share “proprietary” scientific quality control data with an audience outside of a company’s four walls. The focus on the idea of proprietary science can lead to a failure to see that much like the weather, it is in everyone’s interest to share more broadly to understand previously invisible causes and effects.

Multinational companies are executing the same types of testing with the same tools to solve common issues. Governments are beginning to mandate better traceability. Ingredient suppliers and processors are shared by multiple market participants in an interwoven web of risk sharing. If we were to toss out the notion of proprietary science, we can get more comfortable with the realization that all data is a point against a backdrop of the global supply chain through which all aspects of production risk are linked. The power of this data can fuel innovation to better serve future generations while immediately improving the bottom line and resilience of participants.

At bioMérieux, we build tools for customers that address their specific needs while also keeping an eye on applying what we are learning to the entire food industry. The more actionable data our customers have access to, the better — we have testing capabilities, connectivity and the brightest minds in the business ready to tackle current and emerging problems at their source to redefine the future of diagnostic safety across segments.

Now is the time to dismiss the proprietary science fallacy and invest in data sharing to encourage the adoption of augmented diagnostics at scale.

John Shultz brings two decades of experience to his role of senior director of sales and marketing at bioMérieux. He oversees bioMérieux’s U.S. Food business. Shultz holds a Master of Science in Environmental Health Science from the University of Washington, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from Washington State University.