Molecular point-of-care testing offers hope to quell the STI epidemic
MLO | April 2024 | By Allison McMullen, PhD D (ABMM)
 When expressing the breadth of the risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), a colleague of mine often shares the stark perspective, “If you’re having sex, you’re at risk.” And she’s right. While sex is rarely discussed in an open and candid fashion, it is important to remember that sexual health is health, and encompasses all aspects of human sexuality. Sexual health and satisfaction are key components of health and well-being.1
We are accustomed to thinking about sexual health as the presence or absence of disease — namely sexually transmitted infections. But the WHO defines sexual health as “a state of physical, emotional, mental, and social well-being,” which includes aspects such as reproductive health, access to education and care, and sexual experience free of coercion, discrimination, and violence, among others.2 This emerging, broader conversation around sexual health is rooted in changes in communication — the more we talk about it, the more informed we are. The more informed we are, the more we can reduce the stigma associated with sexually transmitted infections and improve the uptake of testing.
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STATE OF THE INDUSTRY
 Medical labs increase use of performance analytics;
Target strategic IT investments
MLO February 2024 | By Kara Nadeau
Digital transformation of processes and the resulting data and analytics generated are growing in importance across the healthcare industry, including medical laboratories. To understand how medical laboratory professionals are using technology and data in their operations, Medical Laboratory Observer issued its third annual State of the Industry (SOI) survey on laboratory data analytics.
Three key findings:
- Strategic IT priorities for labs
- Increased use of data analytics for all aspects of lab management
- Interoperability and data integration issues with laboratory information
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7 pointers for POC cardiac troponin measurement
CAP Today, January 2024 | By Amy Carpenter
Seven recommendations for the use of cardiac troponin measurement at the point of care were published last year and reported in a session at the Association for Diagnostics and Laboratory Medicine annual meeting, shortly after the recommendations appeared in print (Collinson P, et al. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2023;61[6]:989–998).
The guidelines and recommendations are those of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine’s Committee on Clinical Applications of Cardiac Biomarkers (C-CB). Of the 11 authors, four are from the U.S.: Amy Saenger, PhD, and Fred Apple, PhD, of the Departments of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Hennepin Healthcare/HCMC in Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota, and Allan Jaffe, MD, and Brad Karon, MD, PhD, of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic. (Dr. Jaffe is also in Mayo’s Department of Cardiology, and Dr. Karon is dean of the Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences.)
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In ED/urgent cares, the lab tests and the POC team
December 2023, By Charna Albert | CAP Today
A point-of-care testing team from TriCore was part of standing up three dual emergency department/urgent care centers in as many years, with a fourth set to open in March 2024.
“They are super busy, as was expected. There’s a great need for this type of site,” says Kathleen David, MT(ASCP), TriCore’s associate director for near patient testing services, which oversees all of TriCore’s point-of-care testing, including that of a large health care system in New Mexico.
The sites differ from other freestanding emergency departments in that they follow a hybrid health care model, developed by a consultant company, that combines emergency medicine and urgent care services under one roof. About 6,000 point-of-care tests are performed monthly at each site—more tests than are performed in some of the health care system’s smaller hospital laboratories.
David and her point-of-care team led POC test implementation for each of the ED/UC sites, which are located in Albuquerque and the surrounding metro area and see 120 to 160 patients a day.
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Point-of-care testing is the next step for respiratory infections
Dec. 2023, By Dhaval Waghela | MLO
After years of centralization in the clinical testing realm, the field is in the midst of a shift toward decentralization. This trend supports the goals of diagnostic stewardship and getting the right test to the right patient at the right time.
While point-of-care testing has been an option for some clinical situations for many years—rapid flu or rapid strep tests performed at primary care offices are good examples—the need for the full spectrum of testing options was starkly revealed during the COVID-19 pandemic. There was an obvious need for high-quality molecular tests that could be run in hospital laboratories and in reference laboratories. But with all of these clinical laboratories overwhelmed with testing demand, there was an equally clear need for point-of-care options, particularly at-home testing that made it possible for people to get a fairly accurate reading of whether they were contagious so they could take appropriate isolation measures to keep others safe.
For some healthcare situations, this is the model that will serve the entire clinical laboratory community best going forward: a hub-and-spoke approach that allows for all the benefits of centralized testing as well as the advantages made possible through decentralized testing.
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Actionable answers:
Targeted multiplex PCR respiratory testing at the point of care
By Alesia McKeown, PhD, MLO, NOVEMBER 2023
In the unpredictable post-COVID-19 pandemic era, patient expectations have shifted when it comes to diagnostic testing. Americans are more educated about diagnostic testing than ever before, and molecular technologies like polymerase chain reaction (PCR) are a household name. When patients have symptoms that could be diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2, influenza, or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), they want answers, often expecting diagnosis and treatment in one visit.
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Point-of-care testing scorecard spotlights hits and misses
CAP TODAY, NOVEMBER 2023
At the point of care, there are testing wins, some losses, and plenty of pitfalls. “Point-of-care coordinators all have the same problems,” says Meaghan Gladstone, applications consultant at Werfen. Until recently, Gladstone was point-of-care supervisor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. In a session at this year’s Association for Diagnostics and Laboratory Medicine meeting, she told the story of UPMC’s point-of-care successes as well as what didn’t work, and how the clinical committee that now governs point-of-care requests is in place to prevent failures.
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