Point-of-Care Diagnostics Expands Access to Care - Pure Health

    DUBAI, UAE, October 24, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- We are living in an era of great advancement for the rapid diagnosis of many diseases using the latest medical technologies, which are focused on ensuring the sustainability of healthcare services. The healthcare sector is witnessing emerging trends in all aspects with the aim of continually enhancing the delivery of excellent patient care. Among these, innovations in Point of Care (PoC) diagnosis are gaining momentum as they empower clinical practice by expanding access to advanced care.

In years gone by, healthcare was delivered through home visits by doctors until medical discoveries allowed care to shift to the hospital settings. This was essentially the earliest form of the PoC diagnosis. It wasn't until centralised laboratories became commonplace and samples were analyzed using automated systems that complex, large scale diagnosis became more efficient. Eventually, the PoC testing was introduced in hospitals or doctor's offices for simple testing, such as pregnancy tests.

Today, prevention and early detection of a disease is the central focus for caregivers. The concern is all about how to deliver optimal care, quickly and efficiently. The PoC diagnosis solutions help healthcare providers give the right treatment at the right time, as this is a quick and convenient way to test a patient unconventionally in an emergency situation – whether it is in a GP's clinic, critical departments of a hospital, ambulance, home, worksites, fields or even in rural areas. The PoC testing provides doctors with the right information that will help them make the right decisions that will help patience recover their health.

The PoC testing devices are mobile and mostly being driven by wearable micro sensors and lab-on-a-chip technology. These portable instruments and scanning devices even enable non-clinical staff to screen, diagnose and manage many of the communicable and non-communicable diseases around today. The development of sensors and low-cost imaging systems provides rapid analysis of blood samples and scans that can be immediately reported for quick diagnosis.

Diabetes care
The PoC testing enhances the ability to screen diabetics in primary-care settings, suggests a recent research by Heather P Whitley of Auburn University Harrison School of Pharmacy in Montgomery, Alabama. The study compares diabetes screenings between standard practices and systematically offered PoC hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) or glycated hemoglobin tests in patients aged 45 years or older. This may be the most effective method to identify patients with undiagnosed pre-diabetes and diabetes, as this gives the patient's average blood sugar level over the past two to three months. PoC tests will identify patients unknowingly living in hyperglycemia, as it could further facilitate screening evaluation in a timely and feasible fashion.

Cardiac and liver patient care
The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Working Group in the US reveals in a study that the PoC diagnosis has immense potential to advance precision cardiovascular (CV) care. The prevention and management of cardiovascular diseases increasingly demands effective diagnostic testing. The PoC testing in ambulances and emergency rooms can improve the efficiency of care by enabling rapid assessment and triage of patients with chest discomfort. PoC devices can provide highest diagnostic performance without sending samples to a central laboratory. This may become the mainstream frontline CV diagnostics.

The PoC diagnostic solutions can play a key role in the management of liver diseases or liver surgery. A research in this regard by Lasitha Abeysundara of Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust says that the PoC tests facilitate goal-directed treatments in liver patients with more accuracy than the conventional tests.

According to the US-based National Institutes of Health (NIH), the world's largest biomedical research agency, the PoC diagnostics results are timely to provide rapid treatment to the patient. PoC empowers clinicians to make decisions with its potential to significantly impact healthcare delivery and address the challenges of health disparities. The ongoing development of portable diagnostic and monitoring devices for PoC testing could result in the success of a potential shift from curative medicine to predictive, personalized and preemptive medicine.

The prevalence of lifestyle and infectious diseases and the increasing inclination toward home healthcare across the globe drive the growth of the PoC diagnostics segment globally, reveals the Markets & Markets study.

The future of the PoC testing lies in the personalization of medicines. Wireless technology, the Internet of Things (IoT) and big data will not only allow patients to take more control of their own healthcare, but it will hugely improve the way information is transmitted and interpreted making healthcare delivery more efficient, precise and ultimately more affordable.

The impact of the technological advancements in the PoC diagnosis will mostly be seen in low-income countries, where healthcare infrastructure is weak and there are insufficient lab-based testing facilities.

About Pure Health
Pure Health is a healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to "Empowering Healthcare" and making the business of healthcare run better. We partner with payers, hospitals, integrated healthcare systems, healthcare suppliers, the federal government and others across the spectrum of care to build healthier organizations that deliver better care to patients in every setting. The company also supports the growing diagnostic industry by supplying medical products to clinical laboratories and operates the nation's largest network of laboratories. Pure Health helps its customers improve their financial, operational and clinical performance with solutions that include supply chain management and clinical services, through customized solutions. For more details, please log on to https://purehealth.ae/

# # #