Point of care (POC) blood coagulation monitoring technologies

The monitoring of bleeding and clotting risk is a critical component of patient care, as either excessive bleeding or abnormal clotting can have obvious and serious consequences for health and well-being and is related to many other co-morbidities. Classical hemostasis management has been around the monitoring of the time it takes activated blood samples to clot. Such techniques have moved from central laboratory tests to point-of-care technologies, allowing more effective management and treatment. However, such techniques are limited in the information they provide on clotting or bleeding status. There is a big move toward novel approaches which purport to be more representative of an individual's clotting and bleeding risk. These techniques are already being used in, and developed for, point-of-care applications.