The future of PoC diagnostics

Infectious diseases like flu afflict millions of people every year, bringing misery to sufferers with a hard hitting virus that can rapidly sweep through populations and, in some cases whole continents, in a matter of weeks. Identifying and treating these diseases also has considerable cost implications for those responsible for delivering health protection services, while placing a further strain on often already overburdened healthcare systems, delaying treatment and endangering human lives. 

Success in treating many infectious diseases lies in the speed of response; antiviral drugs are at their most effective within the first three days of the onset of symptoms, so the value to medical staff of having to hand easy-to-use, quick and reliable ways to test patients, whether they are in a local hospital or clinic, a doctor’s surgery or a remote village hundreds of miles from the nearest healthcare facility, cannot be overstated. As a result, there is a strong international trend to move the testing and monitoring of infectious diseases outside of the confines of specialist hospitals by using point-of-care (PoC) diagnostics. 

For example, in the UK, previous reports by the House of Lords and the Government response recommended increased testing in non-tertiary referral centres and GP surgeries as part of an approach aimed at earlier and better detection and diagnosis of some diseases to deliver improvements in patient outcomes. In some areas, such as HIV testing for example, there is already a strong international trend towards PoC testing and this approach is extending into other areas including the diagnosis of respiratory viruses.