What is POCT?

Point Of Care Testing devices that deliver results in minutes rather than days are poised to revolutionise the delivery of medicine.

The benefits of Point Of care Tests are well known and accepted – the key factor is the availability of the test results then and there, allowing immediate clinical action.

Immediate forwarding of results

Clinical Universe software forwards the test details electronically to the patient’s physician, using encrypted point-to-point transmission. This arrives at the physician’s electronic medical record in the same way as any external laboratory result does. We use standard messaging protocols – NHS EDIFACT in the UK, ebXML in Scandinavia, or HL7 just about everywhere else.

Mandatory notification to health authorities

Many infectious disease tests with a positive result require mandatory notification to the health authorities. Legislation varies by disease, and by health authority. During pandemics or epidemic outbreaks, even negative results must be recorded for analysis.

Quality assurance of accurate test results

Quality procedures are the key to maintaining accuracy and satisfying reimbursement requirement or CLIA regulations.

Clinical Universe software can automatically pass all test results to a central site where a laboratory scientist supervises adherence to quality procedures and training.

Clinical Universe provides software which supports this quality assurance oversight, highlighting overdue quality control tests, repeated operator errors, or untrained operators.

This oversight combined with auditing can allow certification of Point Of Care Testing operations, giving confidence in their clinical accuracy to any clinician basing decisions on the results.

We have been doing this for a long time

Clinical Universe’s successful projects include a wide variety of systems within hospitals, across health regions and via mobile access in the community:

• point of care device communications
• community nursing using tablets and mobile communications
• diabetes shared care
• mobile systems for pulmonary wards using tablets and wireless networking
• professional hours tracking and reporting
• mobile systems for clinician access in or out of hospital
• locum doctor call despatching
• linking of disparate specialised systems across multiple health regions in order to share common data.

Clinical Universe has in-house expertise and tools in HL7 messaging, SNOMED clinical coding and OpenEHR clinical databases.

Point Of Care Testing, Anywhere

The new generation of Point Of Care Testing devices are portable and powerful. This opens up a whole new world of mobile clinical care. Nursing staff and paramedics with suitable training can travel to regional and remote locations and conduct testing on the spot. No need to send samples to distant pathology labs and wait for the results. All you need is a laptop and an internet connection and the results are available in real-time wherever they are needed.

Scientific, Military or Human Services teams can apply a targeted test-and-treat strategy in remote locations.

Geography is suddenly irrelevant. There are no limits.

The Australian Government is investing $3.3 million to establish a rapid coronavirus (COVID-19) Remote Point of Care Testing Program for remote and rural Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Under the program, people will benefit from testing times being cut to around 45 minutes. This will be a game-changing improvement for areas such as the Kimberley where receiving a test result can currently take up to 10 days.

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