Bringing the lab bench to the field

Point‐of‐care testing for enhancing health research and stakeholder engagement in rural/remote, indigenous, and resource‐limited contexts

Bibliographic Data

ID19459291
AuthorsFelicia C Madimenos (0000-0001-5442-232X, Department of Anthropology, Queens College (CUNY) New York USA, corresponding author), Theresa E Gildner (0000-0001-7486-5208, Department of Anthropology Washington University in St. Louis St. Louis Missouri USA), Geeta N Eick (0000-0001-7512-3265, Department of Anthropology University of Oregon Eugene Oregon USA), L S Sugiyama (0000-0003-1279-0006, Department of Anthropology University of Oregon Eugene Oregon USA), Jeffrey Snodgra (0000-0002-7021-777X, University of Oregon), James J Snodgrass (Department of Anthropology University of Oregon Eugene Oregon USA)
Year2022
Volume34
Issue11
Pagese23808-e23808
Publication date2022-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Human Biology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1042-0533 • E-ISSN: 1520-6300
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/ajhb.23808
PMID36166487
OpenAlexW4297263248
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited107

Point‐of‐care testing (POCT) allows researchers and health‐care providers to bring the lab bench to the field, providing essential health information that can be leveraged to improve health care, accessibility, and understanding across clinical and research settings. Gaps in health service access are most pronounced in what we term RIR settings—rural/remote regions, involving Indigenous peoples, and/or within resource‐limited settings. In these contexts, morbidity and mortality from infectious and non‐communicable diseases are disproportionately higher due to numerous geographic, economic, political, and sociohistorical factors. Human biologists and global health scholars are well‐positioned to contribute on‐the‐ground‐level insights that can serve to minimize global health inequities and POCT has the potential to augment such approaches. While the clinical benefits of POCT include increasing health service access by bringing testing, rapid diagnosis, and treatment to underserved communities with limited pathways to centralized laboratory testing, POCT also provides added benefits to both health‐focused researchers and their participants. Through portable, minimally invasive devices, researchers can provide actionable health data to participants by coupling POCT with population‐specific health education, discussing results and their implications, creating space for participants to voice concerns, and facilitating linkages to treatment. POCT can also strengthen human biology research by shedding light on questions of evolutionary and biocultural importance. Here, we expand on the epidemiological and research value, as well as practical and ethical challenges of POCT across stakeholders (i.e., participant, community, health researcher, and trainee). Finally, we emphasize the immense opportunities of POCT for fostering collaborative research and enhancing access to health delivery and information and, by extension, helping to mitigate persistent global health inequities

Health care · Indigenous · Pathology · Point-of-care testing · Political science · Public relations · Stakeholder · Ethics in Clinical Research · Global Health and Surgery · Global Maternal and Child Health · Medicine · Ecology

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