Point-of-care testing in UK primary care: a survey to establish clinical needs.
cross_sectional · Level IV
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 27048525.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1093/fampra/cmw018 and PMC identifier PMC4127935.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: A number of point-of-care diagnostic tests are commercially available in the UK, however, not much is known regarding GPs' desire for these tests or the clinical areas of interest. OBJECTIVE: We sought to establish for which conditions point-of-care tests (POCTs) would be most helpful to UK GPs for diagnosis, reduction of referrals, and monitoring of chronic conditions. METHODS: A total of 1635 regionally representative GPs were invited to complete an online cross-sectional survey between 31 September and 16 October 2012. RESULTS: A total of 1109 (68%) GPs responded to the survey. The most frequently cited conditions were urinary tract infections for diagnosis (47% of respondents), pulmonary embolism/deep vein thrombosis for referral reduction (47%) and international normalized ratio/anticoagulation for monitoring (49%). CONCLUSIONS: This survey has identified the conditions for which UK GPs would find POCTs most helpful. Comments by respondents suggest that quite radical system-level adjustments will be required to allow primary care clinicians to capitalize on the potential benefits of POCTs.