Point of care testing
disease outbreaks and implementing quarantine measures, helping to reduce the rate of disease transmission. It can take time, patience and cooperation
to modify long-established and entrenched healthcare structures. It requires people at senior levels within healthcare to drive the use of this technology, and to adjust budgets and policies to promote its use. It is too early to tell what long-term impact the recent pandemic will have on POCT, and how it will change healthcare models going forward, but the developments during recent years have been exponential, and this type of testing is now well established in the public consciousness.
Conclusion Molecular POCT improves patient accessibility to healthcare, and can generate immediate, reliable results to improve medical decision making and allow quicker administration of treatments. Although PCR-based POCT faces several challenges, including the initial cost of implementation and the requirement for changes to policies and regulation procedures, the technology has the potential to reduce the burden of disease and has wide-reaching benefits to the healthcare sector, the economy, and society.
References 1 Bartlett R, Dash P, Markus M, McKenna S, Streicher S. New models of healthcare. McKinsey & Company. 2017. https://www.
mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare- systems-and-services/our-insights/new- models-of-healthcare. Accessed October 2022.
2 Price C. Regular review: Point of care testing. BMJ. 2001;322(7297):1285-1288. doi:10.1136/ bmj.322.7297.1285
3 St John A, Price CP. Existing and Emerging Technologies for Point-of-Care Testing. Clin Biochem Rev. 2014;35(3):155-67. PMID: 25336761; PMCID: PMC4204237.
4 Introduction to Public Health. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.
cdc.gov/training/publichealth101/public- health.html. Accessed October 2022.
5 van der Pol, S., Jansen, D.E.M.C., van der Velden, A.W. et al. The Opportunity of Point-of-Care Diagnostics in General Practice: Modelling the Effects on Antimicrobial Resistance. PharmacoEconomics. 2022; 40:823–833. doi:10.1007/s40273-022-01165-3
6 Nichols, J. H. Point-of-care testing. Contemporary Practice in Clinical Chemistry. 2020;323–336. doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-815499-1.00019-3
CSJ
7 Gyorgy Abel. Current status and future prospects of point-of-care testing around the
About the author
James Beckett is the general manager, Germany, for Cepheid. James has held previous roles within the company including director of community diagnostic solutions and clinical solutions executive. Prior to joining Cepheid, he worked for the UK NHS for nine years, holding senior management roles in London Acute Trusts across various specialties. He also has experience in the implementation of point of care testing in collaboration with clinical colleagues in numerous healthcare services.
globe. Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics. 2015;15(7):853-855. doi:10.1586/14737159.2015.106 0126
March 2023 I
www.clinicalservicesjournal.com 59
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64
