Point-of-care testing (POCT) is among the fastest-growing areas of laboratory medicine, driven by clinicians’ increased need for technologies that are faster, cheaper, and provide more robust, clinically useful results than ever—a need fueled more recently by the ongoing restructuring of U.S. healthcare through the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The POCT market is projected to grow to $27.5 billion by 2018 based on a compound annual growth rate of 9.3% since 2013 (MarketsandMarkets), which would peg the current market size at a little over $16 billion. Glucose tests remain the majority of the POCT market—53.7% in 2013 (Reportlinker.com)—but have fallen from 70% in 2011 (RnR Market Research), reflecting expanded use of POCT.
POCT is broad enough to take in the processing lab’s traditional molecular diagnostics increasingly seen in hospitals, home pregnancy or glucose tests, and “rapid diagnostic tests” or RDTs. “Rapid” can range from seconds to hours while patients wait, as long as it’s within a clinical encounter that allows for quick decision-making by the clinician.
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