One of the components in future medical care is point of point-of-care medicine, whereby diagnostic testing is at or near the patient’s point of care. Providing a more convenient means of providing diagnostics and monitoring promises to lower medical cost and give patients easier access to medical services.

Although the concept is gaining followers, it hasn’t exactly taken off yet, according to IVD market researcher Kalorama Information. The firm found in 2017 sales of point-of-care testing reached $19.6 billion, and expects that figure to grow a modest 4.9 percent over the next five years. The growth is lower than some estimates but 40 percent higher than the IVD market, according to Kalorama.

The firm attributes the slower growth to pricing strategies that continue to discount the cost of POC diagnostic testing in some segments but higher cost in other segments of testing.

“Good but realistically a challenging market that needs to fight for proof of utility and share,” said Bruce Carlson, publisher of Kalorama Information.  “One-time glucose testing buys, European market retrenchment, low-cost competitors driving prices.  There are other double digit estimates that have been published, but Kalorama said that its research didn’t support the level of growth except in a few markets.”

 The report noted that glucose markets are slowing because they have not been reimbursed at the levels they once were, which could be attributed to low-cost competition. The report also noted that European markets are showing lower growth as centralization is forced except when necessary.

Two promising growth areas noted in the report were FOB cancer screening and substance abuse testing.