Point-of-care testing: an overview and a look to the future (circa 2009, United States).
Point-of-care testing is a rapidly growing area in laboratory medicine. Technologies related to point-of-care testing have unique analytical features and are used in a number of clinical applications. These attributes combined with complex regulatory requirements have made point-of-care testing a true specialty within pathology. Manufacturers continue to develop new point-of-care tests and have consolidated multiple assays to single small handheld or bench-top devices. Enterprise hospital-wide data management systems are available to facilitate improved regulatory compliance and transmit test results into the electronic medical record. Some studies have shown that point-of-care testing can improve clinical outcomes or increase the efficiency of hospital operations. In spite of these developments, many challenges remain. In some cases, the quality of point-of-care tests performed by nonlaboratory personnel does not match that of testing performed in the central laboratory. Data management connectivity remains a significant problem, especially for manually performed tests. Managing a point-of-care program to maintain regulatory compliance is also problematic. For these reasons, the future of point-of-care testing is not entirely clear. The most likely scenario will be a slow but progressive growth of point-of-care testing in the hospital, in the outpatient clinic, and in the home.
Department of Pathology, Director Clinical Services (Anatomic and Clinical Pathology), Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA. klewandrowski@partners.org
Kent
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Lewandrowski
D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D013677:Medical Laboratory Science; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D014481:United States