World’s First Bedside Genetic Test Provides Results in 60 Minutes without Need to Send Specimen to the Central Pathology Laboratory

Dec 14, 2011 | Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations

Clinical trial demonstrated value of genetic point-of-care testing and a rapid time to result

Here’s a milestone in genetic testing that should catch the attention of pathologists and clinical laboratory managers everywhere. It is a point-of-care (POC) genetic test that is reliable enough to be used in a clinical trial.

The clinical trial was called RAPID GENE. It was conducted at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI). The study enrolled 200 patients who were being treated with cardiac stenting for an acute coronary syndrome or stable angina. What made this study unique is that—for the first time in medicine—it used a point-of-care (POC) genetic test. The genetic POCT was used to overcome many previous obstacles that had prevented use of more routine clinical genetic testing.
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