Barriers to Point of Care Testing in India and South Africa

Point of care (POC) testing in communities, home settings, and primary healthcare centers is widely believed by the global health community to have tremendous potential in reducing delays in diagnosing and initiating treatment for diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis, syphilis, and malaria. the idea is that testing nearer to the patients, at the point of care, allows for quick diagnosis and further management decisions (referral, follow-up testing or treatment) completed in the same clinical encounter or at least the same day, while the patient waits. In this way, the POC continuum is ensured (Pant Pai et al. 2012). POC testing promises to overcome long turnaround times and delays associated with conventional laboratory-based testing. These problems can result in the loss of patients from testing and treatment pathways with detrimental consequences for the development of advanced disease stages and drug resistance.