What is the benefit of rapid disease detection?

In the context of infectious diseases, the term rapid diagnostic test (RDT) most commonly refers to lateral-flow, immunochromatographic tests used to detect certain infections. More generally, such assays may be described as point-of-care (POC) tests.Certain tests that meet this definition may not be used in a manner compatible with POC testing. For instance, an increasing number of waived, sample-to-answer molecular diagnostics (nucleic acid amplification tests, such as PCR or RT-PCR) are becoming available. At a given institution, though, such assays might only be performed in a central laboratory at specific times, thereby limiting their utility in a POC testing protocol. These assays typically require dedicated, bench-top equipment for performance. As such, adding capacity at individual clinical sites may not be feasible.

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