Point-of-care (POC) tests are laboratory tests designed to
be used directly at the site of patient care, which may comprise
physicians’ offices, outpatient clinics, intensive-care
units, emergency rooms, hospital laboratories, and even
patients’ homes. Such broad availability of diagnostic tests
needs systems that are accessible to personnel without specific
laboratory medicine training, and allows quicker delivery
of results that directly influence the clinical decision [1]. Such
tests have become the standard of care for critically ill
patients, allowing bedside evaluation of vital parameters such
as blood gases or glycaemic control [2]. In the last 20 years,
the availability and use of POC tests have greatly increased
and expanded to all fields of medicine, so that a significant
proportion of laboratory testing is currently conducted at
the point of care [1–3]. In the setting of infectious diseases,