Factors Driving the Market
Rapid Testing
- Rising health costs have created new expectations in hospitals including shortened patient stays and a move from an inpatient to an outpatient or ambulatory setting. Hospitals are becoming oriented as treatment centres for the acutely ill, no longer serving primarily as diagnostic centres. The subsequent change in the lengths of hospital stays and patient acuity has placed demands on the laboratory to deliver timely information to facilitate rapid diagnosis and treatment. These demands have compressed the timeframe for performing testing; shorter turnaround times and an increase in the volume of testing have become a necessity.
- Cost savings
Relatively cheap PoC testing devices can replace more labour and equipment intensive laboratory testing. - Social Pressure
Many patients today have greater medical knowledge, more money and greater expectations of healthcare services. They demand faster, more effective treatment and want greater control of their health. - Industry Pressure
Manufacturers are driving growth through the development of diagnostics instruments and tests that are simple and easy to use specifically for the PoC environment. Many of the devices have data management capabilities to enable them to be linked to hospital information systems for the capture of patient data. - Future developments
It is clear that technological advancements in PoC equipment will be a future growth driver in the PoC market. A number of companies are developing multiplex assay systems which enable the simultaneous measurement of numerous analytes from one small sample. This represents a major advancement in PoC testing and offers the opportunity of lower costs and a reduction in the number of tests performed.
Bio-AMD’s unique technology platform and associated pipeline of products address this huge and fast growing market space.