Scoping review reveals a lack of randomized trials evaluating point-of-care tests in emergency medical services, highlighting the need for clinical and economic research.
We identified a thriving base of research on POCT in the EMS, however most studies established the diagnostic accuracy of the tests with few RCTs, economic analyses or qualitative research on acceptability. The time-lag from diagnostic accuracy to developing an RCT is considerable. Investment in funding and infrastructure is needed to support the research pathway for potential POCTs beyond diagnostic accuracy to designs able to assess clinical effectiveness, acceptability and economic effectiveness.
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Moore et al. (2025) studied this question.
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