Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Nov;25(44):1900420.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.44.1900420.

Do point-of-care tests (POCTs) offer a new paradigm for the management of patients with influenza?

Elizabeth M Dickson  1   2 , Maria Zambon  3 , Richard Pebody  4 , Simon de Lusignan  5 , Alex J Elliot  6 , Joanna Ellis  3 , Angie Lackenby  3 , Gillian Smith  6 , Jim McMenamin  2
Affiliations

Do point-of-care tests (POCTs) offer a new paradigm for the management of patients with influenza?

Elizabeth M Dickson et al. Euro Surveill. 2020 Nov.

Abstract

The introduction of point-of-care tests (POCTs) has presented new opportunities for the management of patients presenting to healthcare providers with acute respiratory symptoms. This Perspective article is based on the experiences of national infection teams/those managing acute respiratory infections across the United Kingdom in terms of the challenges and opportunities that this may present for public health. This Perspective article was conceived and written pre-coronavirus disease (COVID-19), however the principles we outline here for influenza can also be translated to COVID-19 and some key points are made throughout the article. The greatest challenge for intergrating POCTs into non-traditional environments is the capture of data and samples for surveillance purposes which provides information for public health action. However, POCTs together with measures outlined in this article, offer a new paradigm for the management and public health surveillance of patients with influenza.

Keywords: Influenza; challenges; opportunities; patient management; point of care testing.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Public Health England (PHE). Point of care tests for influenza and other respiratory viruses. London: PHE; 27 Nov 2018. Available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploa...
    1. Merckx J, Wali R, Schiller I, Caya C, Gore GC, Chartrand C, et al. Diagnostic Accuracy of Novel and Traditional Rapid Tests for Influenza Infection Compared With Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Ann Intern Med. 2017;167(6):394-409. 10.7326/M17-0848 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lee JJ, Verbakel JY, Goyder CR, Ananthakumar T, Tan PS, Turner PJ, et al. The Clinical Utility of Point-of-Care Tests for Influenza in Ambulatory Care: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Clin Infect Dis. 2019;69(1):24-33. 10.1093/cid/ciy837 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Youngs J, Marshall B, Farragher M, Whitney L, Glass S, Pope C, et al. Implementation of influenza point-of-care testing and patient cohorting during a high-incidence season: a retrospective analysis of impact on infection prevention and control and clinical outcomes. J Hosp Infect. 2019;101(3):276-84. 10.1016/j.jhin.2018.11.010 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Brendish NJ, Malachira AK, Beard KR, Ewings S, Clark TW. Impact of turnaround time on outcome with point-of-care testing for respiratory viruses: a post hoc analysis from a randomised controlled trial. Eur Respir J. 2018;521800555. 13993003.00555-2018 - PubMed

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources