‘Lateral flow immunoassays (LFIs) have evolved rapidly in the past 30 years, from the original crude and simple qualitative tests, to more complex multi-analyte and quantitative assays,’ reports BBI Solutions, a firm that has been raising the performance of lateral flow tests with the development of technologies for next generation diagnostics.
Just two decades ago, even though promising, point-of-care testing (POCT) was only used in hospitals and surgeries by a small number of specialists. Today POCT is in use throughout healthcare.
Not long ago, POCT was a specialist diagnostic discipline used by only few laboratory staff. This has changed considerably over recent years. Initially, the main focus had been on determining electrolytes, blood gases, blood clotting and blood count, but further parameters, such as kidney function, cardiac enzymes, urine tests and testing for autoimmune diseases have now been added. Whilst the…
For POCT, point-of-care testing, a lab has to purchase new equipment, perform new measurements and handle new parameters – right? Right! However, more importantly, POCT requires the adaptation and integration of the existing lab organisation, with all its consequences, from additional quality control down to new areas of responsibility. Dr Herbert Stekel is currently integrating three…
Pocket ultrasound accelerates diagnosis at the point-of-care reducing the role of the radiologist. You can buy a pocket ultrasound probe online, download an app to your smart phone and start making your own diagnoses of joints and organs. ‘It’s popping up everywhere. But is this a good thing?’ asked Michael Bachmann Nielsen, a radiologist at the Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, during a…
Point-of-care ultrasound plays an important role in the emergency sector, enabling hospital clinicians and paramedics responding to an urgent call for medical assistance to assess a patient’s condition. Dr Matthew Reed, an Emergency Medicine consultant at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, explained how ultrasound contributes to the management of cardiac arrest.
Siemens Healthineers has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Epocal Inc., a subsidiary of Alere Inc. Epocal Inc. develops and provides point-of-care blood diagnostic systems for healthcare enterprises, including the epoc Blood Analysis System, a handheld, wireless testing solution.
'Blood is a very special juice’ – something even Goethe’s Mephistopheles knew. Medics have also known this for centuries, so it’s nothing new that the ‘juice’ and its properties receive a lot of attention in medicine. However, what is new is that dealing with the use of blood through patient blood management (PBM) is coming to the fore.
Anaesthetists working in perioperative medicine have increasingly taken a whole body approach to patient evaluation known as TUBE – Total Ultrasound Body Examination – thanks to the development of point-of-care ultrasound. Dr Christophe Aveline, Consultant Anaesthetist in critical care and surgery at the Sévigné Private hospital in Rennes, is an advocate of TUBE and works closely on its…
FUJIFILM SonoSite has given two M-Turbo point-of-care ultrasound systems to the non-governmental sea rescue organisation Proactiva Open Arms, based in Badalona, near Barcelona, to support its efforts in rescuing refugees.
Point-of-care (POC) ultrasound is now commonly used in emergency departments throughout the UK. These instruments provide valuable insight for the assessment of both trauma and non-trauma patients, as well as helping to guide procedures. But for many departments, the use of POC ultrasound is limited by a lack of training and poor instrument availability. Professor Bob Jarman, Consultant in…
Dr Ralf Doyscher, from the Department of Sports Medicine at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, has a close association with soccer at both professional and amateur levels. He recently participated in a scientific project focusing on preventative check-ups for the general health of elite young soccer players, and took the opportunity to simultaneously investigate the potential of…
Lifestyle tests that pretend to be medical procedures are inherently problematic in terms of clinical, medical and privacy issues.
Point-of-care testing can play an influential role in reducing overcrowding in hospital emergency departments.
Abionic SA announced the receipt of CE Mark (Conformité Européenne) for two novel tests using its easy to use testing platform, abioSCOPE. The CE Mark allows Abionic to commercialize its tests for sepsis risk assessment and management (PSP Test) and iron deficiency throughout the European Union.
In Western society, access to high quality medical treatment is frequently taken for granted. Elsewhere, the reality is that many less developed countries struggle to provide healthcare services. Zanzibar has taken a unique approach to resolving this issue, working closely with the charity Health Improvement Project Zanzibar (HIPZ) to improve its hospital services. Dr Ru MacDonagh, founder of…
At the MEDICA 2016 IMMS is presenting its first approaches for the personalized diagnostics of cancer using a prototype device. It was developed in the three-year research project INSPECT which started in June 2016.
Dr. IlyasTugtekin, a consultant anaesthetist from Ulm University Clinic in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany, recently travelled to Kumasi in Ghana to help establish an ultrasound training centre for doctors all over West Africa. Funded by the Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation (Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung, EKFS) – a non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting medical research and related…
Dr. Thomas Grau, Head of Anaesthesia, Surgery, Intensive Care, Emergency Medicine and Pain at the Gütersloh Clinic, first studied ultrasound for a PhD on spinal imaging at Heidelberg University Hospital in the 1990s. 25 years on, he reflects on the role point-of-care ultrasound now plays in anaesthesia.
Siemens Healthineers announced that the company is expanding its informatics capabilities for point-of-care testing with the acquisition of Conworx Technology GmbH, the Berlin-based developer of point-of-care device interfaces and data management solutions. The addition of the Conworx suite - including UniPOC and POCcelerator - complements the Siemens Healthineers award-winning RAPIDComm Data…
Waiting for test results can be a minor inconvenience for some patients, but for those who are critically ill, timing matters. At the CPOCT International Symposium in Copenhagen (21-24 September) Dr Craig Lilly, a professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts spoke about the point-of-care testing market, outlining currently available testing for critically ill adults, and also under…
Some significant changes in the European hospital sector have occurred over the last 20 years. ‘The necessity to contain the exploding costs in particular has led to a reduction in the number of hospitals and hospital beds, and staffing levels have also been affected by the many cost cutting measures. This has not been without its consequences, as we now know,’ writes Ludwig F Rutten.
FujiFilm SonoSite makes ultrasound machines tough for one reason — the people who use them need it that way.
Siemens Healthineers announced today it released a major software upgrade for the RAPIDComm Data Management System (V6.0), an informatics solution to centrally manage in vitro diagnostics analyzers and operators at the point-of-care (POC). In addition to the system’s enhanced productivity and performance features, RAPIDComm V6.0 now connects with POC cardiac devices.
The massive earthquake in Nepal in April 2015 killed more than 9,000 people and injured more than 23,000. Within days, medical teams from other countries had offered services to the disaster relief effort.