Laboratory on site assistance charge special relevance in critical patients and emergencies.

-these testswhich occur outside the clinical laboratory, are booming since they allow faster results and less probability of errors

-technological advances have also contributed to its growth with the development of small portable analyzers, table, type PDA, and even devices in vivo, which increasingly measured more biological magnitudes

– in 2010 they already accounted for approximately one third of the cost of in vitro diagnosis, and only in United States it is estimated that they will have a cost of $ 18,700 million in 2013

– still, the DiSEqC setting emphasizes that evaluates your usage based on each field and type patient and not be indiscriminately

– employment testing RPTC involved people from different areas: practitioners, supervisors and nursing staff from different services, personal supplies and computer service and even patients, all of them led and coordinated from the clinical laboratory

Madrid, July 2012.- Point-of-Care Testing (RPTC) refers to those laboratory tests laid down in the place of assistance to the patient, non-clinical laboratory. They currently are in full expansion since they allow the results faster and less probability of errors, since they disappear some stages of the process of laboratory diagnosis, as the completion of request flywheel or the transport of samples. In fact in 2007, only in United States, the cost of in vitro diagnosis was $ 11.3 billion, while in 2013 is estimated to reach $ 18,700 billion.

This type of test approach means clinical laboratory to the doctor and the patient, allowing even that the patient is involved in the management of your care process. All this is made possible by technological advances, that contribute to the development of small portable analyzers, table, type PDA and even devices in vivo, which increasingly allow us to measure more biological magnitudes ”, says Dr. Paloma Oliver Sáez, President of the recent the DiSEqC setting RPTC group.

These determinations – continues the expert – charge greater emphasis in the areas of care to critically ill patients and in emergencies, as in them changes can occur rapidly, which makes necessary effective monitoring that allows early diagnosis and rapid treatment ”.

While it is in this type of patients in which the RPTC is more relevant, – explains the doctor – testing can occur in different areas. They tend to be more frequent at the hospital level, depending on the clinical conditions of the patients, its location in the hospital with respect to the laboratory or in cases in which can not ensure compliance with adequate preanaliticas conditions to carry out requested determinations. They can also be made in other areas such as health centres, transport health or in the patient’s home. In this sense can improve the care of patients for chronic diseases, optimizing the management of obtaining samples, avoiding unnecessary visits, costly displacement or loss of working hours ”.

But although the advantages resulting from the RPTC are numerous, not be performed indiscriminately – says the Chairman of the group. Its necessity in each case depending on the scope and the patient should be evaluated. To do this, they will have to take into account certain aspects regarding the patient, the clinical, laboratory, the institution and the health system. Consider clinical aspects such as the early recognition of critical situations, the reduction of complications pre or post-operative or the use of drugs that require monitoring, but also organisational and economic aspects ”.

Therefore, Dr. Oliver believes that is important that clinical laboratory is involved in the entire process relating to the RPTC tests to ensure a proper management of these determinations. In addition, the development of measurements instead of assistance is conditioned progress and technological change occurring faster each time. It is possible to measure increasingly more biological magnitudes with simpler equipment that can be placed in various areas and, due to the greater availability of these determinations, may also cause unnecessary or incorrect use ”.

all help a correct implementation of the RPTC, which must be understood as a project in which to integrate people from diverse areas: practitioners, supervisors and nursing staff from different services, personal supplies and computer service and even patients, all of them led and coordinated from the clinical laboratory through the figure of the RPTC Coordinator ”continues the expert.

Finally, Dr. Oliver says that clinical laboratory professionals must consider that it is not determinations that are made to other units outside our scope, is the laboratory which approaches the doctor and patient to help improve the care process, and which constitute one tool of the clinical laboratory support for the proper management of patients ”.

The DiSEqC setting