BIOMEDICAL 16 THE SCIENTIST
SUPPLIERS GUIDE Point-of-care testing
the tumour and cancer segment (7.6%) and then prescription-based testing sector (7.5%). It states: “Growing awareness about early disease diagnosis and prevention has stimulated the demand of POCT molecular diagnostics for detection of cancer and infectious disease at early stages. It has also benefited genetic testing and detection of sexually transmitted diseases. POCT has become an integral part of disease management and therapy. Applications include drug regimen selection, patient stratification, therapeutic monitoring, and detection of predisposition to disease.” However, the report does go on to stress that there are some barriers to growth: “High cost of product development will be a major market hindering factor. Integration of advanced technology into these devices to reduce the rate of errors have increased the cost of production, which has in-turn led to an increase in the price of these devices, thereby restricting the overall market growth.”
UK developments The growth of POCT in the UK was evident last year when for the first time the IBMS ran a dedicated POCT programme at Congress. Scientists crowded into a packed hall to hear a number of speakers cover a variety of topics from how
POCT has become an integral part of disease management and therapy POCT is introduced and controlled in primary care, to accreditation of POCT services, to the importance of software developments. Dr Sarah Glover is a clinical lead for POCT and was the chair for the Congress POCT programme. She said: “We’ve had individual session that have been well attended and POCT is a discipline which is growing and growing and that’s only going to continue going forwards.”
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One of the speakers was Ben Courtney, Accreditation Manager at UKAS, who said “the UKAS approach is adaptable and collaborative with POCT”. He went on to explain: “We want to understand what the problems are and devise an accreditation programme that suits biomedical scientists’ needs. Those thinking about seeking accreditation should conduct a gap assessment and then address those gaps – we
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