BACKGROUND Point of care testing (PoCT) may be a useful adjunct in the management of chronic conditions in general practice (GP). The provision of pathology test results at the time of the consultation could lead to enhanced clinical management, better health outcomes, greater convenience and satisfaction for patients and general practitioners (GPs), and savings in costs and time. It could also...

OBJECTIVES Untreated maternal syphilis leads to adverse pregnancy outcomes. The use of point of care tests (POCT) offers an opportunity to improve screening coverage for syphilis and other aspects of health systems. Our objective is to present the experience of the introduction of POCT for syphilis in Peru and describe how new technology can catalyze health system strengthening. METHODS The s...

ambulance or jet during actual transport. Although this " before transport " portion of testing may impact overall transport costs by altering transport time, it remains a topic for future utilization review. One concern with POCT in critical care transport is the potential for excessive utilization because of the availability and ease of testing. A primary finding of this study was the low rat...

In Australia, New South Wales Health Pathology's implementation of managed Point-of-Care Testing (PoCT) services across rural and remote emergency departments (EDs) has the potential to significantly improve access to results for certain types of pathology laboratory tests and help to deliver timely patient care. The aim of this study was to assess the quality of the datasets, including the int...

OBJECTIVE To determine if use of point of care testing (POCT) is less costly than laboratory testing to the National Health Service (NHS) in delivering the NHS Health Check (NHSHC) programme in the primary care setting. DESIGN Observational study and theoretical mathematical model with microcosting approach. SETTING We collected data on NHSHC delivered at nine general practices (seven using...

BACKGROUND We aimed at assessing the factors that can influence results of the dissemination of an already validated, new generation commercial Point-of-Care Test (POCT) for detecting celiac disease (CD), in the Mediterranean area, when used in settings where it was designed to be administered, especially in countries with poor resources. METHODS Pragmatic study design. Family pediatricians a...

BACKGROUND Respiratory virus infection is a common cause of hospitalisation in adults. Rapid point-of-care testing (POCT) for respiratory viruses might improve clinical care by reducing unnecessary antibiotic use, shortening length of hospital stay, improving influenza detection and treatment, and rationalising isolation facility use; however, insufficient evidence exists to support its use ove...

BACKGROUND Although a theoretical consideration suggests that point-of-care testing (POCT) might be uniquely vulnerable to error, little information is available on the quality error rate associated with POCT. Such information would help inform risk/benefit analyses when one considers the introduction of POCT. METHODS This study included 1 nonacute and 2 acute hospital sites. The 2 acute site...

Methods: An audit examined three acute medical presentations (patients with acute chest pain, patients with acute exacerbation of renal failure due to a missed dialysis session(s) and patients with acute diarrhoea) at six remote health centres in the Northern Territory where POCT was routinely available. The main clinical outcome was the percentage (%) of patients with each acute presentation w...

BACKGROUND In acute stroke patients, thrombolysis is one gold standard therapy option within the first four hours after the ischemic event. A contraindication for thrombolysis is an International Normalized Ratio (INR) value >1.7. Since time is brain, rapid and reliable INR results are fundamental. Aim was to compare INR values determined by central laboratory (CL) analyzer and Point-of-Care Te...