Design of a wireless system for patient-hospital communication and result validation in point of care testing

This paper discuses mobile phone (cell phone) and wireless applications for linking patients who manage their healthcare outside the hospital using Point of Care Testing (POCT) to hospital information systems (HIS). Certain medical conditions require patients to manage their healthcare by performing on themselves POC testing and act faithfully on the result. This raises quality control issue, as these POC samples and testing procedures are not independently overseen by professional hospital staff. In hospitals, samples taken by clinicians are validated by hi-tech computerised validation systems to ensure plausibility, before physicians rely on them. Patients in the home must often use results from these POCT to determine medication dosage or to monitor their condition. Thus, there is a need to implement a system of result validation, either locally or by the hospital validation system itself, for people testing with POCT devices.