engleski

Point-of-care molecular diagnosis: a near future?

Is point-of-care molecular diagnosis a near future or not – it may not be too difficult to perceive and answer the question. The future of medicine is a logical consequence of the sequence of events, and some achievements and possibilities probably are currently closer than we can imagine. Some questions unavoidably emerge when considering the future of medicine and the role of molecular diagnosis in it, e.g.: • What influences the development of medicine and medical biochemistry as tightly related professions (market economy? ; science? ; technology?)? • What is the impact of market economy on the course of development of diagnostic methodology? • What is the course of technological development? What are the predominant fields of development? • What is the course of scientific development? As many as 80% of medical decisions are made on the basis of laboratory findings. Therefore, it can well be stated that the results of in vitro laboratory tests are a vital aspect of medical decision making. However, the costs of in vitro laboratory diagnosis account for a negligible percentage of overall health care expenditures in the context of global market. Although still insignificant, this share has shown some increase in the last few years. Investment in new reagents and technologies in general results in advanced methods used to detect various diseases and states. According to reports and estimates of renowned economy experts, in medicine these developments are currently most pronounced in the fields of infectious diseases, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, and malignant diseases. Considering technologies, in the last decade the most intensive development has been recorded in the methods of molecular diagnosis, e.g., various variants of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method, microarray and nanoarray technologies. This trend is anticipated to continue in the future, with ever increasing investments in this segment of market economy. Hospital laboratories remain the most extensive consumer of diagnostic equipment and reagents. In the future, some non-institutional health care segments such as private practice and polyclinics will probably take a growing share. These segments will be subject to strict control of the tests and methodologies licensed to perform, and thus of the technologies available.

Point of care, Molecular diagnosis

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