Timing is everything in healthcare. Patient’s don’t have time to sit in waiting rooms all day and physicians; suffice to say they aren’t twiddling their thumbs, looking for something to do.
That constant urgency has helped drive a wave of point-of-care (POC) technologies that deliver real-time, actionable information. According to Kalorama, a division of MarketResearch.com, the total value of this emerging field reached $18.4 billion in 2016. That’s up from an estimated $15.4 billion in 2015 — and its just getting started.
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POC products are designed to be efficient and relevant, whether they’re used in the clinic, hospital, home or any other venue. The idea is to remove the standard lag time between testing and personalized treatment.
Done well, POC advances can change the healthcare landscape. As noted by the National Institutes of Health, “empowering clinicians to make decisions at the “point-of-care” has the potential to significantly impact health care delivery and to address the challenges of health disparities.”
On the other hand, a lot of POC tests are currently overused. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute, noted in email correspondence that many of the new technologies haven’t yet proven their accuracy and clinical utility.
“A mixed bag, for sure,” Topol said.
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He gave the example of POC testing performed in medical centers (ERs, hospitals and clinics). Some have been validated as tools to accelerate key decisions, such as troponin for heart attacks in the ER. Consumer-driven “smartphone labs” that preempt formal testing are also moving forward, Topol said, with the help of cheap and accurate microfluidics and colorimetric assays.
But in all cases, reliability and clinical utility needs to be thoroughly proven.
In a statement announcing the report, Bruce Carlson, a publisher of Kalorama Information, underscored the importance of connecting the resulting data.
“New technologies are allowing POC devices to produce quantitative lab-quality test results that can be transferred automatically to an information system, a remote caregiver service for consultation, or an electronic medical record.”
The classic POC products are usually diagnostics. San Diego, California-based Genalyte is one example, working on a simplified blood test that medical professionals could use to run dozens of tests and glean results in a matter of minutes.
“It’s going to happen, diagnostics is going to be decentralized,” Genalyte founder and CEO Cary Gunn told MedCity News in a phone interview late last year.
For other companies, point-of-care diagnostics means having the results on hand for timely patient-provider discussions. This was underscored by Mayo Clinic startup OneOme, which runs pharmacogenomic tests to understand how a patient is likely to respond to different drugs and different doses.
The genomic test itself takes several weeks to run, CEO Paul Own told MedCity News, but the information is up-to-date and accessible in the physician’s office for many years.
“By providing pharmacogenomic information at the point of care, OneOme empowers providers to improve health outcomes, avoid costly prescription trial and error, reduce healthcare costs, and combat against adverse drug reactions, which are the fourth-leading cause of death in the United States,” Owen said. “We absolutely believe if we don’t create tools for providers to have inside of their EMR or EHR with the latest data and information at their fingertips, it’s going to be lost.”
Biosensors and wearable devices are also expanding, allowing remote monitoring of many different health parameters.
Gentag’s skin patch for diabetes is designed to help remotely monitor glucose levels. The biosensor is part of a wearable patch that communicates in a closed-loop diabetes management system compatible with mobile phones.
While POC diagnostics often rely on silicon chips and other clever assays, the wearables, biosensors and genomic tests all involve huge amounts of data. As the Kalorama statement notes, the field often requires tech expertise.
“A major factor in achieving the goal of more precise and personalized therapeutic options is the use of advanced algorithm-driven information technologies that can turn test data into actionable medical decision-making information.”
For companies developing POC technologies, there are a number of hurdles to overcome. Patients need to be engaged. As do doctors. The requirements for use must be sustainable long-term and the products themselves need to be intuitive and easy-to-use. Companies will also need to prove the economic value of their POC devices or tests, to ensure reimbursement.
It’s safe to say, those challenges will eventually be overcome. At $18.4 billion per year, the market has a powerful critical mass to disrupt age-old habits within healthcare.
Photo: indigolotos, Getty Images
