Point-of-Care Tests Likely to Become Bigger Factor in Lab Business Moving Forward

By Ron Shinkman, Editor, Laboratory Industry Report

For decades, the mechanics of laboratory testing have been at a physical remove from the bulk of health care delivery.

A blood draw or tissue sample is performed on a patient at one site and the material is transmitted to a lab for testing. The results are then sent back to the original site or yet another locale.

That model is likely to remain in place for decades to come. But the laboratory business is also likely to see a significant portion of the tests it performs shift to point-of-care (POC) testing. Kalorama projects the point of care (POC) testing market in the U.S. reaching $13.1 billion a year by 2018 (that includes over-the-counter assays, which are usually purchased by consumers to conduct testing at home).

Although POC testing has been around for decades a variety of factors have come into play in recent years that make POC testing a more desirable option. They include the proliferation of retail clinics at big box pharmacies—which makes performing such tests a more urgent matter—advances in technology, and the need for convenience. And while many POC tests are more expensive than assays performed in a large lab, they can still reduce the overall cost of rendering care by getting a patient treatment much sooner than waiting a day or two for test data.

According to a recent report by the National Institutes of Health, "the success of a potential shift from curative medicine, to predictive, personalized, and preemptive medicine could rely on the development of portable diagnostic and monitoring devices for point-of-care testing."

Click here to read an Inside the Lab Industry feature published in the Sept. 17, 2015 issue of Laboratory Industry Report.