Highlights from Thermo Fisher Scientific’s sponsored session at the 17th Dresden Symposium on Autoantibodies

At the 17th Dresden Symposium on Autoantibodies, Thermo Fisher Scientific hosted a session that brought together leading voices in autoimmunity. The session explored one of today’s most pressing issues in autoimmune diagnostics: how to balance the risks of overtesting with the benefits of earlier and targeted testing.

Across talks and debate, the speakers converged on a simple principle: use the right test for the right patient at the right time—and report results in a way that provides clear and actionable information to support clinicians in their decision making.

The cost of delay

Prof. Marvin Fritzler (University of Calgary, Canada) emphasized the rise in autoimmune diseases worldwide and the price of delayed diagnosis. By the time lupus is diagnosed, one-third of patients already show kidney involvement. He stressed the need for harmonized reporting, validated pathways, and smarter use of artificial intelligence and combined diagnostic methods.

Watch the presentation explaining why delayed diagnosis is not just costly, but harmful.

Celiac disease as a case for early testing

Prof. M. Luisa Mearin (Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands) showed how targeted early testing for celiac disease in children can be both cost-effective and life changing. A gluten-free diet not only reverses intestinal damage but also improves quality of life. She presented a project from the Netherlands showing nearly 2% undiagnosed celiac prevalence in young children—a clear case that supports proactive screening. 

Watch the presentation on how pediatric celiac screening is reshaping public health.

The risks of overtesting

Dr. Jan Damoiseaux (Maastricht University Medical Center, The Netherlands) cautioned that for most autoimmune diseases, population screening creates more confusion than clarity. With low pretest probability, false positives lead to unnecessary cascades, anxiety and wasted resources. He argued that testing should focus on patients with relevant symptoms or genetic risk and results should only be reported if they are actionable. 

Watch the presentation on why broad screening risks doing more harm than good.

Debate and discussion

The panel and audience brought the tension between science and practice to life:

• False positives can harm: Overtesting risks delaying the real diagnosis and misdirecting care.
• Patient demand is rising: Many test requests now come from patients influenced by online information.
• Ethics and practicality matter: Screening initiatives in some countries show how policy can move faster than practice, creating new challenges for clinicians and laboratories.

The discussion highlighted both opportunity and risk: earlier detection can prevent irreversible damage, but indiscriminate testing risks overwhelming patients, clinicians and health systems.

Take-home message

Rising autoimmunity demands smarter—not simply more—testing. Laboratories and clinicians must work together to:

• Anchor requests in clinical context and pretest probability
• Use tiered algorithms and reflex testing instead of broad, untargeted panels
• Standardize reports with clinically meaningful interpretations
• Build validated approaches that combine clinical context, laboratory data and AI support into real clinical pathways

As the symposium showed, the future of autoantibody testing is about testing smarter—choosing the right tests for the right patient, at the right time and reporting results in a way that drives clear clinical decisions.