Point-of-Care Testing for Infectious Diseases: Diversity, Complexity, and Barriers in Low- And Middle-Income Countries

Enthusiasm and hope are increasing around point-of-care (POC) diagnostics for diseases of global health importance. The mere availability of rapid or simple tests does not automatically ensure their adoption or scale-up. A range of barriers prevent the successful use of POC testing—economic, regulatory, and policy-related, as well as user/provider perceptions and cultural barriers. Technology as such does not define a POC test. Rather, it is the successful use at the POC that defines a diagnostic process as POC testing. Thus, the focus must be on POC testing programs, rather than POC technologies. We discuss a framework that envisions POC testing as a spectrum of technologies (simplest to more…

• BA
  Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

  Award: OPP1061487
• GC
  Grand Challenges Canada

  Award: OPP1061487
• CI
  Canadian Institutes of Health Research

  Awards: MOP-89918, OPP1061487
• FD
  Fonds de Recherche du Québec - Santé
• EA
  European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership