Drivers for the strong growth of Point-of-Care Testing (POCT), aside from diabetes self-monitoring, are applications like the testing for cardiac markers, coagulation and infectious diseases (mainly viruses and bacteria). Near patient testing allows fast availability of diagnostic results. For applications like cardiac marker, sepsis diagnostics and some others, that is crucial for better patient outcomes.
Instrument size varies from bench-top to handheld devices. Typically, one to a few samples at a time are processed. Clinical environments and some pharmacies have adopted POCT, where fast availability is crucial for the quality of care.
An increasing number of sample-to-answer NAT solutions and immunochemistry based test instruments are in use, and companies develop and launch new platforms offering wider test menus.
Various kinds of consumables, from lateral flow stripes for qualitative and semi-quantitative measurements to integrated, instrument platform specific cartridges with microfluidic features and sample preparation reagents for NAT, are in use.