Emerging POCT – Taking healthcare solutions to remote primary care settings

The diagnostic industry is looking toward decentralization as latest point-of-care testing (POCT) opens up a whole new world that enables decentralized access points, allows testing to be performed on small, portable devices, at the time of patient consultation, and generates rapid results that enable immediate interventions. The growing demand to take the healthcare to last mile is fueling the demand for innovation in portable testing devices. Added to this, the government’s initiatives to support wider adoption of POCT are the key driving forces for their growth across economies, which is anticipated to attain USD 72 billion market by 2027 at a CAGR of 10.8 percent.

The future of diagnostics is under scrutiny and would be defined by certain practical and operational benchmarks like access to the services, affordability, and the turn-around-time. Access to diagnostics without a need for specialized laboratory can be an important tradeoff between healthcare and taking time off from work. Over 70 percent of the healthcare decisions are dependent on expert diagnostics, and they are essential tools, hence cost-effective assays that are convenient but do not compromise on quality can often be an only option. Moreover, the rapid turn-around-time allows more people to be tested in the limited time frames. POCT has the capability of enabling the healthcare provider to reach an immediate diagnosis and give momentum to early treatment decisions.

POCT has significant potential application across rural and remote healthcare settings where access to laboratory-based testing is often poor and the burden of chronic, acute, and infectious diseases is often high. In its infancy, the POCT market was dominated by lateral flow assays that included glucose monitoring and pregnancy testing card, to name a few. Generally, these tests have been seen as an asset as they provide a flexibility of use, minimize travel and waiting time, and provide swift answers that drive prompt solutions. Another innovative diagnostic technology that is gaining traction involves the use of small plastic cartridges, which allow us to perform complex assays that include syndromic/multiplex assays to diagnose multiple infections and give answers for drug resistance, ascertain some common chromosomal translocations, and detect pre-defined mutations. As POCT becomes more sophisticated, patients too feel empowered by this new accountability for their own health because of the sheer speed, quality, and affordability.

Despite the advantages, there are a lot of concerns that need to be addressed for the future positioning of these POCT assays. While in some areas like glucose testing, POCTs have been successful but overall accuracy (that is defined by sensitivity and specificity) of the majority of the assays remains an important consideration. To help drive the adoption, POC manufacturers need to enhance the performance of these tests and make it comparable to those performed in the centralized laboratories. With this, the lack of awareness amongst the masses and hesitancy in healthcare professionals about these assays need to be addressed. As such, the need of the hour is improvisation of the technology to achieve higher level of accuracy and reliability, reduced turn-around-time, and making the results accessible to the stakeholders in an intelligible way. In addition to that, extension of such technologies to encompass broader ranges of disease across the therapy areas, such as oncology, neurology, STIs, etc., is a point worth considering.

POCT provides a huge opportunity to make patients take control of their health. Covid-19 pandemic has put extra focus on their significance, hence fast-tracking their transformation. The inbuilt freedom of use without the need for a formal laboratory make them an easy tool to handle, which allows us the scope to make available the benefits of the latest in healthcare to the remotest of locations.