Iowa City Lab Brings Heart Test Processing Home, Cutting Wait Times
Cardio Diagnostics Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: CDIO), an AI-driven precision cardiovascular medicine company, has launched its own high-complexity CLIA-certified laboratory in Iowa City, Iowa. The move brings the processing of its heart disease tests, Epi+Gen CHD™ and PrecisionCHD™, fully in-house, replacing a third-party arrangement and giving the company end-to-end control from sample receipt to result delivery.
The facility was staffed, equipped, and established within a year, and it received its federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) license after an inspection that found no deficiencies. The company has also secured out-of-state licenses from California, Maryland, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania, and is actively pursuing its final license from New York, which has distinct requirements.
Why does in-house processing matter for patients?
Processing samples in-house offers several key advantages. It replaces the variable per-test outsourcing cost with a more controllable cost structure, improving unit economics and margins as sample volume grows. The company expects this model to support gross margins of approximately 40% at scale.
More critically, in-house processing gives Cardio Diagnostics direct control over quality control procedures and turnaround time for patient results. The current turnaround time is 7 to 10 business days from sample receipt at the lab, a meaningful advantage in a healthcare system where the appointment itself is often the longest part of the wait. The company expects that owning the workflow will allow it to tighten that window over time.
How long do patients typically wait for heart care?
Turnaround matters. According to AMN Healthcare's 2025 Survey of Physician Appointment Wait Times, across the 15 major metropolitan areas surveyed, patients wait an average of 32.7 days for a new cardiology appointment and 23.5 days for a family medicine appointment. This does not account for subsequent follow-up care to run additional diagnostics or review test results, which further exacerbates wait times.
A faster, more predictable test turnaround time, especially when combined with virtual telemedicine visits supported by Cardio Diagnostics' testing process, gives providers actionable results sooner, without prolonging the patient's care journey.
What is the role of the Iowa City research lab?
The Iowa City facility also houses a research lab to strengthen the company's pioneering research in precision epigenetic methods for more targeted cardiovascular care. The facility will help advance a broader company initiative to build a high-precision monitoring system for cardiovascular health.
Vertical integration allows Cardio Diagnostics to develop its own quality control and precision measurement tools, supporting more accurate detection and quantification of changes in epigenetic biomarkers over time and enabling those changes to be linked to therapeutics.
Together, these capabilities aim to improve patient care, support more predictable costs, and strengthen quality and consistency for the providers, employers, brokers, and patients who have incorporated Cardio Diagnostics' multi-omics tests into their cardiovascular care and risk management strategy.
“Bringing our laboratory operations in-house is a defining step for Cardio Diagnostics,” said Meesha Dogan, Ph.D., CEO and Co-Founder of Cardio Diagnostics. “Owning the entire process, from the moment a sample arrives to the moment a provider receives a result for their patient, lets us strengthen quality control, streamline turnaround time, and deliver a more consistent experience while continuing to increase our test margin.”
About Cardio Diagnostics
Cardio Diagnostics is an artificial intelligence-powered precision cardiovascular medicine company that makes cardiovascular disease prevention, detection, and management more accessible, personalized, and precise. The company was formed to further develop and commercialize clinical tests by leveraging a proprietary AI-driven Integrated Genetic-Epigenetic Engine for cardiovascular disease. For more information, visit cdio.ai.
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