Point-of-care testing for disasters: needs assessment, strategic planning, and future design.
Objective evidence-based national surveys serve as a first step in identifying suitable point-of-care device designs, effective test clusters, and environmental operating conditions. Preliminary survey results show the need for point-of-care testing (POCT) devices using test clusters that specifically detect pathogens found in disaster scenarios. Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami in southeast Asia, and the current influenza pandemic (H1N1, "swine flu") vividly illustrate lack of national and global preparedness. Gap analysis of current POCT devices versus survey results reveals how POCT needs can be fulfilled. Future thinking will help avoid the worst consequences of disasters on the horizon, such as extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis and pandemic influenzas. A global effort must be made to improve POC technologies to rapidly diagnose and treat patients to improve triaging, on-site decision making, and, ultimately, economic and medical outcomes.
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, UC Davis-LLNL Point-of-Care Technologies Center [NIBIB, NIH], Point-of-Care Testing Center for Teaching and Research (POCT*CTR), School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. gjkost@ucdavis.edu
Gerald J
GJ
Kost
Kristin N
KN
Hale
T Keith
TK
Brock
Richard F
RF
Louie
Nicole L
NL
Gentile
Tyler K
TK
Kitano
Nam K
NK
Tran
D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D003625:Data Collection; D054597:Disaster Medicine / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D057221:Influenza A Virus, H1N2 Subtype / Q000302:isolation & purification; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000175:diagnosis; D017744:Medical Waste Disposal / Q000295:instrumentation; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems
D017744:Medical Waste Disposal