New report on global market for point of care diagnostics

The market for point of care diagnostics reached $17 billion, in 2014, according to Kalorama Information. The term refers to diagnostic tests performed outside the central laboratory or decentralized. The healthcare market research publisher said the market is large with fair competitive activity, but growth is tempered due to pricing strategies that continue to discount the cost of point of care (or POC) diagnostic testing in some segments and higher cost in other segments of testing. The finding was made in Kalorama Information's The World Market for Point of Care Diagnostics.

"The menu for point-of-care testing continues to expand," said Bruce Carlson, Publisher of Kalorama Information. "Standard tests always thought of as POC have been joined by new markers and infectious disease tests."

Over the years, the increasing introduction of transportable, portable, and handheld instruments has resulted in the migration of POC testing from the hospital environment to a range of medical environments including the workplace, home, disaster care and most recently, convenience clinics.

The traditional set of POC tests includes: blood glucose testing, blood gas and electrolytes analysis, rapid coagulation testing, rapid cardiac markers diagnostics, drugs of abuse screening, urine strips testing, pregnancy testing, fecal occult blood analysis, hemoglobin diagnostics, infectious disease testing and cholesterol screening, according to the report. Kalorama's report details the size of each of these markets.

Kalorama says POC test devices have contributed significantly to the growth of the overall diagnostics market over the past 10 years. More diagnostic manufacturers have pursued CLIA waiver status for their POC devices and CE Mark for POC or self-use.

"At the same time more decentralized test venues invest in non-waived rapid tests and instruments POC testing appears to be headed for an even bigger role in diagnosis and monitoring patient care," Carlson said.