TY - JOUR T1 - Will COVID-19 be the coming of age for point-of-care testing? JF - BMJ Innovations JO - BMJ Innov SP - 3 LP - 5 DO - 10.1136/bmjinnov-2020-000466 VL - 7 IS - 1 AU - Christopher P Price AU - Andrew St John Y1 - 2021/01/01 UR - http://innovations.bmj.com/content/7/1/3.abstract N2 - As countries deal with the COVID-19 pandemic in varying ways, one area of agreement is the need to test for the COVID-19 virus in as many people as possible. Beeching et al have rightly pointed out that ‘tests cannot be interpreted if they are not available’.1 However, as reported in the UK media, access to COVID-19 (viral) testing has been limited for some sections of the population including healthcare professionals and carers. There have also been long delays in getting the results back to the person being tested. This has now been addressed by increasing the number of specimen collection stations and the use of home collection kits, although the return of results can take several days.As we now move into the next phase of getting the economy restarted, the number of tests required will increase significantly, underpinning the test and trace service. More and more employers and business owners will be asking the question ‘Do any of my employees or customers have COVID-19?’; there has also been a call for testing at the borders, as international travel recommences. This will further stimulate the demand for convenient and timely testing; Beeching et al 1 argued the need for rapid near patient testing, a point also made by Sheridan reviewing the developments in fast, portable diagnostic tests for COVID-19.2 We refer to this as point-of-care testing (POCT) since the intention is to act on the result (the care element) immediately. POCT recognises the immediacy of the question being asked both in spatial and temporal dimensions.3 With the immediacy of the COVID-19 pandemic and the sheer number of people that require testing (virus or antibody), it is relatively easy to demonstrate the benefit, and therefore the value, of POCT to a wide spectrum of what we might call … ER -