Principally, this is due to the fact that the ideal rapid test does not require any equipment, while biosensors include a transducer device by definition. However, the general trend is still increasing and is expected to further expand in the next decade.Īlthough biosensors can be considered as rapid tests based on the abovementioned definition (as they are designed for enabling fast and in situ analysis), usually are not included in the category of point-of-care testing. The picture is partial, as the number of techniques exploited for point-of-need testing and, in parallel, the ways used to indicate them are growing. The transition is clearly perceivable when considering the trends of scientific publications describing the development and applications of rapid tests plotted by time and by subject area ( Figure 2). In the late 1990s, a scenario mutated under the influence of two new incentives: on the one hand, point-of-need testing started to attract the interest of scientists and academics, which meant a rapid evolution of technologies, materials, and analytical strategies, and on the other hand, new fields of applications were opened. The huge success of home clinical testing boosted the research in the field that, at least initially, was completely driven by industrial interests. These tests were placed on the market the following year, and since then, sales have been continuously growing. The next milestone was reached in 1976 with the approval of three home pregnancy tests by the US Food and Drug administration (FDA). The first rapid test dates back to 1962, when a new method to measure glucose in blood was developed. In fact, the point-of-care testing strategy enables efficiently controlling the spreading of infectious diseases and also generally reducing healthcare costs. In the clinical context, a timely response means superior benefits for the patient, who immediately access the treatment, and for the society as a whole.
Speediness store portable#
The story of rapid tests originates in the medical field where they were developed for providing portable diagnostic tools that can be operated directly by physicians or even patients themselves. The time delay within the analytical question and the decision (action) consequent to the obtainment of the response (result) falls from several days to few minutes. Schematic workflow for laboratory-based (left) and for point-of-need testing (right).
This strategy allows for multiple benefits to be reached, besides saving time and money, namely, (i) enabling timely decisions and intervention, (ii) encompassing issues associated to sample transportation and storage, (iii) enlarging the access to control especially in low-resource settings, and (iv) allowing for multiple measures over time, thus increasing the efficiency of monitoring programs.
The point-of-need testing approach bases on simplifying and shortening the analytical process by cutting most of the steps required by traditional, laboratory-based analysis ( Figure 1). Among several variants, the most explicative synonym of such kind of analytical methods is represented by the locution “point-of-care test” (“point-of-need test” to extend to fields of applications other than medicine), which highlights the key feature of rapid tests, i.e., the ability to provide a response to an analytical demand exactly where the demand is posed.
Speediness store series#
The term “rapid test” is used to indicate a series of analytical methods that generally share common features, such as being easy to operate, quick, and cheap, and above all enable on-site application.
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