Emergency Medical and Intensive Care Units (ICU) and Cardiac Care Units (CCU)
Emergency medical personnel need to identify patients as soon as possible, rule out life-threatening factors, and provide timely triage and treatment. The comprehensive introduction of POCT testing can effectively accelerate physicians' clinical decisions and improve patient management efficiency and prognosis. In addition, POCT has become a necessary tool for pre-hospital emergency assessment and has been used in acute stroke emergency systems based on community paramedicine and air ambulances and ambulances.
Operating room
POCT is widely used for monitoring patients' vital signs in the operating room, including blood gas analysis, coagulation monitoring, monitoring of important indicators and rapid screening for infectious diseases.
Outpatient and Primary Care
Outpatient clinics and primary care institutions are responsible for the treatment of common diseases and the identification and referral of critical patients, and POCT is particularly valuable for primary care institutions with limited testing resources.
Public Health Prevention and Control
POCT is recommended by the World Health Organization for the prevention and control of global infectious diseases such as malaria and AIDS. In the novel coronavirus epidemic, POCT-based platform for rapid detection of novel coronavirus antigens, antibodies and nucleic acids, together with PCR testing, can build a three-dimensional prevention and control testing strategy to effectively promote the control of the epidemic.
Out-of-hospital patient management
The use of POCT devices in out-of-hospital settings for monitoring blood glucose in diabetic patients and coagulation in warfarin-treated patients has been carried out for more than 20 years. With the development of home/community medicine, POCT is gradually becoming an important tool for the management of patients with chronic diseases.
Consumer self-testing
Immunochromatographic techniques, represented by colloidal gold, are the most common means of consumer self-testing, and HCG testing has become the primary means of self-assessment of pregnancy in women of childbearing age, while POCT self-testing is also recommended by the World Health Organization for screening for infectious diseases such as HIV. In the novel coronavirus epidemic, self-testing for novel coronavirus antigens/antibodies has become an important complementary tool.