PoC Diagnostic Devices

In today’s healthcare landscape, there is a great need for reliable tools that meet multiple clinical needs with the aim of improving patient quality of life and reducing healthcare costs. Currently, patient monitoring tests are conducted in clinics and laboratories that require adequate space and qualified personnel. This makes traditional diagnosis for disease prevention, identification, and treatment laborious, slow, and costly. On the other hand, rapid advances have been made in the field of clinical diagnosis over the last decade at significantly low costs and modest investments, providing solutions for both patients and professionals in the field of diagnostic devices. The affordable prices of end devices represent a significant advantage, particularly in the underdeveloped world, where healthcare is poorly funded. Moreover, small investments in health improvement have shown significant returns in reducing morbidity and mortality.

In this regard, Point-of-Care (PoC) technologies lead the innovation in this field of medical care and diagnostic device development. PoC devices can be defined as providers of patient health indicators in an autonomous, immediate, and decentralized manner (places like patient homes, on-site, etc.), applied at different stages, from diagnosis to monitoring or therapy adjustment. In this context, PoC devices could not only improve the diagnosis and control of high-prevalence diseases but also improve healthcare in challenging scenarios where clinics are scarce, where there is an absence/scarcity of laboratories and trained personnel, or where there are hostile environmental conditions. These scenarios are generally associated with underdeveloped or developing countries, but the recent COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for such tools in developed countries. Lastly, and not least, PoC devices and technologies are the main tools for developing an interconnected network between patients and healthcare providers to provide functional and fully committed home hospitalization, alleviating stress on public health services and resources.

On the other hand, PoC technologies also represent a useful tool in the environmental field. Air and water pollutants are affecting the health of living beings (humans, animals, and plants), agriculture, fishing, and infrastructure. Water pollution is present in all these fields, where bacteriological and chemical contamination is contained in drinking water, oceans, lakes, and food. In recent years, it has become a global concern for associations such as the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), American Water Resource Association (AWRA), World Water Council, European Environment Commission, and other organizations. In response to these needs, research in PoC systems and devices designed to detect and track pollutants is increasing exponentially.

In summary, PoC devices must be able to functionally approach laboratory tests, conducting such tests in less time, remotely, without the need for qualified personnel, and with lower production costs and healthcare resources. It is envisaged that, in the near future, laboratory clinical tests will be replaced by PoC technologies, changing the paradigm of traditional diagnostic tests in the clinical laboratory environment to patient-close environments, providing physicians with the necessary information to make informed decisions about patient diagnosis and treatment. This should be a powerful incentive for the funding and development of these global health solutions.