Importance of Point-of-Care Testing in India

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the huge gaps in India's health care system and the need for novel point-of-care solutions.

India, like other low and middle-income countries, is burdened with a variety of infectious and non-infectious diseases that are not only preventable but also curable if detected early and accurately. However, skewed health infrastructure and lack of adequate diagnostic tools at the point of patient contact and the consequent delay in intervention leads to disease progression and spread that takes a heavy toll on patients, society, and economy, year on year.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the huge gaps in our health care system and further highlighted the need for rapid and accurate diagnosis at all levels of society. The current urban-centric nature of health infrastructure is catering only to a small segment of the population, leaving the majority with limited access to timely disease diagnosis. This has a cascading effect on personal and societal well-being and heavily impacts disease management efforts. Considering the tight timelines of global disease elimination targets, it is becoming increasingly important to enable universal access to high-quality diagnostics which can happen only through a decentralized approach. Novel Point-of-Care solutions that can be deployed closer to the patient are the need of the hour.

What is point-of-care (POC) testing?

Point-of-care (POC) testing refers to the ability to conduct reliable diagnostic tests even in the absence of laboratory infrastructure. POC tests need to be rugged, user-friendly, and rapid and be portable, battery-operated, and with data transfer capability. POCs significantly reduce the turnaround time to appropriate intervention and even in resource-limited settings, diagnosis and treatment can be completed in a single day. Early diagnosis and treatment ensure quick patient recovery, reduce the chance of further spread of infection to the community, and thus help in

better management and control of the disease. POC tests also solve the problem of people living in inaccessible areas by providing remote access to health care.

Role of POC testing in fight against COVID-19

Molbio has pioneered point-of-care molecular testing through its novel Truenat Real-Time PCR platform that brings PCR technology right to the point-of-care, at all laboratory and non-laboratory settings, primary centers, in the field, near-patient, essentially at all levels of healthcare thereby decentralizing and democratizing access to molecular diagnostics.

With a large and growing menu of assays for infectious diseases, this rapid, portable technology enables early and accurate diagnosis and initiation of correct treatment right at the first point of contact. The platform is infrastructure-independent and provides a complete end-to-end solution for disease diagnosis. With proven ability to work even at Primary Health Centres, this game-changing technology brings in a paradigm shift to the global fight in control and management of devastating infectious diseases.

The platform has helped increase rapid testing of various infectious diseases such as Tuberculosis, Dengue, Chikungunya, H1N1, Hepatitis and is now playing a critical role in the fight against COVID-19 across India and the world. The single testing capability allows the sample to result in one hour that ensures same-day medical intervention either physically or remotely (using the inbuilt wireless data transfer capability of the platform). The real-time data transfer facility is also useful for programmatic management of diseases by providing instant insight to disease prevalence, hot spot monitoring, and various analytics and as a location and inventory management tool.

Point-of-care platform for Tuberculosis detection

In 2020, after extensive local and multi-country validations by ICMR and FIND TruenatMTB became the world's only point-of-care platform approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) for Tuberculosis detection as a front-line test and as a replacement to the current smear microscopy. TruenatMTB is already rolled out by the National Tuberculosis Elimination Program in about 1760 DMCs in the first phase and global rollout plans are underway. We expect collaborations with other programs such as the Viral Hepatitis Program, NACO, and National Vector Borne Diseases Control program to add to the wider deployment and usage of the technology at the grass-root level.

The article has been contributed by Sriram Natarajan, Founder, Director & Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Molbio Diagnostics.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article belong to the author. Readers are advised to exercise discretion and try out the mentioned tips/remedies only under the supervision and advice of a doctor.