Expanding the boundaries of point of care testing

Excerpt

Point of care (POC) or ‘near patient’ testing refers to testing and reporting at the site of patient care, usually by non-laboratory or where applicable by non-imaging personnel. Although now a growth industry, the POC concept is not new. Modalities brought to the bedside in decades past have included ultrasonography [1], echocardiography [2], pulse oximetry [3], and intra-arterial [4] and transcutaneous [5] as well as benchtop blood gas monitoring. Current applications are legion, whether wearable, hand-held or benchtop devices [6]. To cite just a few we have glycosylated haemoglobin analysis [7], pulse co-oximetry [8], thrombo-elastography [9], therapeutic drug and drugs of abuse screening [10], tests for malaria, tubercle bacillus and the dengue virus [11] and cartridge-based analysers offering suites of tests such as blood gas analysis, electrolyte and urea/creatinine panels, haematocrit and coagulation testing, rapid cardiac markers and β-HCG assays [12, 13]. …