Is there a silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic? A recent article by researchers in Humanities and Social Science Communication at UMass Chan Medical School and UMass Lowell, a nature portfolio According to the journal, interest in point-of-care technology (POCT) has increased among medical professionals during the pandemic, recognizing that easy-to-use home, portable, and bedside devices are being applied to a wide range of ailments. reported that

Health professionals also saw the adoption of POCT as facilitating the humanization of epidemiology, that is, sharing control of disease diagnosis and management with patients rather than remaining provider-led. rice field.

Anticipated but unpredictable, so-called “gray swan events” change attitudes and behaviors, such as how society manages and provides access to health care, and how it provides unique opportunities to inspire innovation. The author writes that it can change the COVID-19 presented him with one such Gray Swan opportunity.

“I was trying to understand if there was any positive trajectory that happened as a result of COVID,” says Senior Author and Associate Professor of Global Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Innovation at UMass Lowell’s Manning School of Business. Denise R. Dunlap, Ph.D. “Fortunately, we were collecting data before COVID hit. provided.”

Few other studies have examined the factors that influence the adoption of POCT among health professionals, according to the paper’s authors. COVID-19 has highlighted weaknesses in healthcare delivery systems, including reliance on laboratory-based diagnostic technologies, and provided opportunities for rapid development of new technologies to address patient needs.

Dr. Dunlap and her colleagues are UMass Chan researcher David D. McManus, MD, the Richard M. Hajduk Professor of Medicine and chairman and professor of medicine. Nathaniel Hafer, PhD, Assistant Professor of Molecular Medicine and Principal Investigator of the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnosis (RADx) Tech Clinical Studies Core Logistics Team at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Craig M. Lilly, MD, Professor of Medicine, Anesthesiology and Surgery. He is Sean Teebagy, his senior year student at TH Chan School of Medicine.

“The point of care has been a really nowhere for a long time,” says Dr. Hafer. “Now that we’ve had COVID, everyone knows what home testing is and the benefits of being able to test yourself. “How does this apply to things like cancer and other infectious diseases?”

In the current study, researchers conducted identical surveys of a network of medical professionals, researchers, and medical device developers. The first was distributed from October 2019 until he was in late March 2020, and the second was distributed from late October to November 2020.

Respondents were asked to list up to five conditions in which POCT could help diagnose disease. Name up to five conditions in which POCT would help monitor or manage disease. And which POCT features are most important for incorporating her POCT into routine practice?

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, medical professionals had identified 18 medical condition categories in which POCT could be used to diagnose disease. Endocrine diseases, including diabetes, were prominent among these, followed by infectious diseases, cardiovascular and hematological diseases.

After COVID-19 was designated a pandemic, medical experts identified 20 medical conditions for which POCT could be used to diagnose the disease. Infectious diseases and cardiovascular-related conditions rose to the center of this network, followed by endocrine, respiratory, and hematologic conditions.

Perceptions of POCT to manage or monitor disease have also changed. Before the pandemic, health care professionals identified cardiovascular disease as the category most useful for monitoring or managing point-of-care technologies. Once COVID-19 was designated a pandemic, endocrine diseases were identified as the conditions for which POCT would be most useful. However, interest in metabolic diseases has grown the most.

“I think there are many reasons why point-of-care technology has become more important post-COVID, because the more familiar you become with using technology, the more you realize the benefits of using it,” said Dunlap. said.

Dunlap suggested that many cardiovascular disease and cancer patients didn’t get a diagnosis during the pandemic because they were afraid to go to the hospital or canceled routine checkups.

“COVID has not only necessitated point-of-care testing for COVID testing, but point-of-care technology as healthcare is becoming more decentralized,” said Dr. McManus. “From our paper, there is no doubt that we are seeing a shift in the acceptance and integration of these technologies into mainstream healthcare. It has become an essential element of

This project evolved out of the UMass Center for Advancing Point of Care Technologies (CAPCaT), a member of the NIH Point-of-Care Technology Research Network, and was co-directed by McManus and co-author Bryan Buchholz, Ph.D., in the biology of UMass Lowell. medical engineering. CAPCaT, which receives a $7.9 million grant from the NIH, is part of the UMass Chan Medical School and he is part of the Massachusetts Center for Medical Device Development (M2D2), run by UMass Lowell, to promote emerging biotechnology and medical devices. We help companies bridge the gap between ideas and markets.