Assessment of point-of-care testing devices for infectious disease surveillance, prevention and control – a mapping exercise

The ability to rapidly diagnose infectious diseases is critical, not only for the appropriate and timely treatment of infected patients, but also for infectious disease surveillance, the detection of outbreaks and controlling the rapid spread of infectious diseases nationally and internationally. Point-of-care testing (POCT) for infectious diseases represents a set of technologies that can lead to the rapid detection of such diseases which can influence the way patients are treated.

This document provides the final report of a mapping exercise undertaken as part of a wider study that was commissioned by ECDC and undertaken by RAND Europe between November 2019 and April 2020. The objective of the wider project was to assess the availability, use and impact of POCT devices in European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) Member States and the United Kingdom (UK) for communicable diseases under EU surveillance. Please note that the data collection was undertaken in 2019, from EU/EEA Member States, thus the UK was still a Member State of the EU at this time. This explains the inclusion of UK data in this report. The project included two parts, a scoping review and a mapping exercise. The mapping exercise, to assess the current status of the use of POCT in EU/EEA Member States and the UK, including the impact of POCT on clinical practice and on key public health functions, is the focus of this report.

Download the report here