POCT, point-of-care testing, refers to clinical testing and bedside testing performed next to the patient, usually not necessarily performed by a clinical examiner.
It is a new type of method for immediate analysis at the sampling site, eliminating the need for complicated processing procedures for specimens in laboratory testing, and quickly obtaining test results.
Point-of-care testing (POCT) is uniformly named by the POCT Equipment Technology Professional Committee of China Medical Equipment Association on the basis of multiple expert demonstrations, and it is defined as: the point-of-care testing (POCT) is carried out at the sampling site, using portable analytical instruments and A test method in which the matching reagents can quickly obtain test results.
The meaning of POCT can be understood from two aspects: spatially, the test performed around the patient, that is, "bedside test"; in terms of time, it can be "immediately tested".
Features
1. Fast
The main purpose of POCT is to get experimental results faster. The advancement of diagnosis and assistive technology, the awareness of the disease and the improvement of the treatment level are the main reasons why POCT is gradually attracting attention (financial pressure is a secondary factor).
These advances have brought some diseases close to eradication, and enabled others to be diagnosed and treated better.
For the diagnosis of AMI patients, if the clinical manifestations of highly suspicious ECG performance are not of decisive diagnostic significance, the application of myocardial injury marker cTnI bedside diagnostic reagents can make the diagnosis and treatment of such acute patients easier and more accurate . The whole process only takes 15 minutes.
2. Easy to use
Easy to operate and easy to use is another feature of POCT.
POCT has become a part of the diagnostic system by virtue of its ease of use; POCT has assumed the functions of a laboratory without the need for traditional hospital laboratory equipment.
POCT can be done either in a doctor's office or in a moving car. POCT can serve patients 24 hours a day regardless of time and location restrictions.
3. Save overall cost
The biggest problem facing experimenters is to control the cost of diagnosis.
But the result is always a reduction in the cost of a single test, rather than a reduction in the overall cost of the patient's entire medical treatment process. From the perspective of "single test cost", POCT is relatively high; but in many cases, the application of POCT can not only improve experimental results but also reduce resource occupation, patient hospitalization time, sampling time, and medical staff occupation time.
