A number of factors such as the rising prevalence of lifestyle and infectious disease, are increasing usage of home-based Point of Care Diagnostics, technological advancements, and decreasing number of technicians in the central labs are driving the growth of the Diagnostics market today. Point of Care (POC) Diagnostics can be broadly defined from infectious disease testing kits, glucose monitoring, cholesterol test strips to cardiac markers and more. The general market is assumed to be valued at $13.8 billion back in 2011 and expected to increase to $16.5 billion this year. As annual growth is forecasted at 3.7 percent, the diagnostic testing business is at its highest growth and in the United States alone is the largest singe market for diagnostic testing in both home use and near-patient applications.
The availability of POC testing has revolutionized the continuum of the patient-care process by rapid turn times on medical test results. POC has impacted the quality of healthcare and the system; proving patient centered approach to care.
As we dive deeper into this continuum of patient home based care in the diagnostic market, we are also at a stand still to the challenge of unit costs per test. The automation offers substantial savings through enabling rapid delivery of results, therefore reducing facility costs but we must remember those reimbursement strategies or the plans for health system completely redesigning their own systems. What does this mean for the original equipment manufacturer, start-up or even contract manufacturer? The increase in value home-based patient care at the precedent Internet of Things (IOT) trend will continue to move upward. The market diversification continues to impact our healthcare system with technology on the forefront. We primarily will begin to consider:
- Patient Outcomes
- Impact of process of care
- Impact of resource utilization
