Point-of-Care Testing and Public Health: A Global Challenge for the 21st Century

摘要

This issue of Point of Care provides useful recommendations not only for implementing point-of-care testing (POCT) and near-patient testing in health care delivery systems, but also for using these rapid response modalities to address critical health problems in America, Australia, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Reference 1 directs the reader to background information useful in understanding the current worldwide scope of POCT and critical care testing and the breadth of diagnostic resources available for use from hospital to home.1 Rapid development of POC technologies parallels current trends toward distributed health care. Point-of-care testing is well positioned to become a dominant diagnostic approach in the 21st century!