Point-of-Care Diagnostic Testing in Global Health: What Is the Point?

Abstract

In general, point-of-care (POC) testing refers to diagnostic products that are simple, low cost, and performed outside laboratories. This is a productcentric view of POC testing. We recommend redefining POC testing to make it goal-oriented, explicitly making the rapid initiation of correct treatment the most critical goal of any POC test. Unlike the standard definition, which creates a rigid dichotomy between POC versus laboratory tests, we suggest that POC testing should be viewed as a spectrum: of technologies (simplest to more sophisticated), users (lay persons to highly trained), and settings (homes, communities, clinics, peripheral laboratories, and hospitals). POC testing is not defined by technology but by the diagnostic process, making it important to think in terms of testing programs or strategies that lead to the rapid completion of the test-and-treat cycle. Health care systems interested in POC testing programs need to do more than purchase rapid tests; they also need to build systems for rapidly communicating test results and beginning appropriate treatments.