Exames laboratoriais de triagem e emergências hospitalares: Relatório referente a aplicabilidade das tecnologias “Point-of-care” (POC) e “Lab-on-a-chip” (LOC)

Abstract

The growing and constant technological advancement in the laboratory area and in diagnostic medicine, impels the obtainment of quick responses, making safe and well grounded decisions in front of patients. Point-of-care (POC) technology is a mobile diagnostic device performed close to the patient, in which its analysis process is fast, as only a drop of blood is used to perform the test. Lab-on-a-chip (LOC) devices, on the other hand, have a small chip in which all clinical trials carried out in a laboratory are miniaturized within it, making it capable of performing various functions, making it a useful strategy in biomedical diagnostics with rapid detection of analytes for application of clinical tests. The aim of this research was to deepen a literature study on the technologies of POC and LOC, in order to suggest, through their applicability in screening tests and hospital emergency, future studies that are capable of integrating these two technologies in a single device. In this research in the first stage, an integrative literature review was developed, whose objective was to serve as a reference for the second stage, constituted respectively by the construction of the study and report on the applicability of the POC and LOC. Mobile devices with laboratory functions are becoming increasingly necessary in the hospital environment, in order to quickly optimize patient care and therapeutic conduct in the shortest possible time. Studies aimed at analyzing hospital care in association, making fast and safe decisions, using a suitable laboratory mobile device, are essential to assist such professionals in improving patient health, providing greater organization and turnover of these patients in the environment hospital. In this way, it is possible to obtain faster exams, an optimized, favorable and humanized patient flow, generating a more efficient preventive action.