With the current healthcare crisis, healthcare centers have seen their capacities saturated and patients requiring routine diagnostic tests are not receiving adequate care.
This situation has greatly increased the importance of having reliable and simple diagnostic and monitoring devices that allow these tests to be performed at the patient’s home, in pharmacies or in outpatient centers. This reduces the risk of having to go to health centers and speeds up certain procedures, since it is not necessary to have qualified personnel available.
In this sense, Point of Care (PoC) devices have been a revolution in terms of innovation in the development of care, monitoring and clinical diagnosis devices, thus constituting a tool to indicate the patient’s health.
The main objective of the use of Point of Care (PoC) devices is to generate rapid results, so that an early decision on the treatment to be followed can be established on the basis of the diagnosis obtained.
This is possible thanks to the advances made in the development of these devices, which together with the revolution in information technologies have allowed the data obtained to be visualized in information management platforms where healthcare professionals can make decisions quickly and with real data.
Point-of-care testing is performed in a variety of settings: in a healthcare professional’s office, in the emergency department, in an infectious disease containment unit, in home care, in ambulances, at accident scenes, in the armed forces, in radiology departments, among others.
Physicians and patients need timely diagnoses in order to continue treatment.
Identifying a pathology requires precision, agility and practicality. Since the healthcare universe is increasingly looking for solutions focused on customer delivery, Point of Care Testing has become a viable option to solve doubts, offer diagnoses and reduce waiting time.
Considering the efforts of the last two decades, POCT tests have been developed with new technologies to bring more efficiency to the point of care and make the tests more sensitive and specific.
The area of infectious disease testing is the fastest growing area of Point of Care Testing. Aiming to diagnose infections quickly, they are able to determine timely treatment, limit the spread of agents and delay or prevent outbreaks.
In developing countries and more remote rural regions, the use of point-of-care testing is also motivated by the search for better options to make diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as malaria, HIV and tuberculosis available to the people who suffer most from their spread agents. POCT has also proven useful in the determination of sexually transmitted infections.
Why Pharmacy?
Independent pharmacies are convenient, accessible, reliable and preferred health care destinations. Earlier identification of acute infections and chronic illnesses leads to earlier diagnosis and access to treatment, which can save lives in some cases. Antibiotic stewardship is also an advantage!
-POCT Growing in demand
The demand for POC testing continues to grow within our healthcare system due to its tremendous potential in value-based care and the real-time responsiveness that near-patient diagnostic testing enables. As patient engagement becomes increasingly important in healthcare, the fact that POCT is often associated with higher patient satisfaction is another factor that is driving growth in the POCT market.
The technology behind the devices and the ability to electronically integrate results at test sites is becoming more reliable and affordable, which is also driving the adoption of point-of-care testing.
By offering these tests in your pharmaceutical business you will be able to offer more comprehensive services to your patients.
At Functional Wellness Network, we help the healthcare industry, healthcare professionals get key point solutions to improve their services and help their patients achieve better outcomes.
If you would like to learn more about how we help the healthcare industry, please visit our website at:
www.functionalwellnessnetwork.com
or contact us at
Antioxidant Scanner: 858-899-8880
Dr. Mansi Shah
Functional Wellness Network
www.functionalwellnessnetwork.com
