Handbook of Near-Patient Testing

by Martin A. Crook

Near Patient testing, or NPT, has recently gained the interest of many healthcare professionals. NPT involves measuring various analytes in samples taken from the patient at the bed-side or in the out-patient clinic or GP's surgery. In a few cases, such as pregnancy testing kits and blood glucose monitors, NPT can even be undertaken by the patients' themselves. The advantages of NPT are potential cost-effectiveness and a rapid turn-around of results, which allows treatment to be instigated or altered promptly in the light of the test findings. The aim of this book is to provide a highly practical guide to the many techniques involved. It also takes great care to highlight commonly encountered pitfalls which may adversely affect the results obtained and places important emphasis on appropriate quality assurance for all of the techniques discussed.

116 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 1999