The aging of the world’s population has led to steady annual increase in the number of patients suffering from chronic diseases. With the demand for long-term care of chronic diseases on the rise, the point-of-care-testing (POCT) market has also experienced a boom.

"Compared with other types of medical devices, POCT has experienced exceptional market growth recently", says professional analyst. The global market scale of POCT devices is projected to increase at a CAGR of 9.7% from 2015 to 2020. And the global POCT market is also expected to reach US dollar 17.8 billion in 2016. By 2020, the market scale will come to around US dollar 25.6 billion.

POCT devices have become popular segment within the overall market for in vitro diagnostics (IVD), because they offer several important advantages. POCT devices tend to be compact in size and easy to use as to allow testing to be done on or near patients at various locations-often beyond the confines of hospitals and laboratories. Furthermore, these POCT devices are not limited to healthcare professionals and can provide immediate results or data. Some of the well-known examples of POCT include glucometer and pregnancy test kits, both of which are now common medical devices for home use.

"The trends of aging population and increasing chronic diseases patients continue to generate demand for long-term care services", says the analyst. “In this context, the POCT market also becomes the focus of attention in the healthcare sector. Testing devices used in the diagnosis of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases especially are major market growth drives.”

Glucometer are the most dominant products in the POCT market as their share within the entire global POCT market is almost at 50 percent. Emerging markets are expected to trigger another wave of demand for glucometer just as their developed markets has slowed down due to saturation. As emerging markets experience economic experience growth, consumers there have greater awareness of POCT and related topics.

With prices of glucometer dropping due to increasing market competition, medical device manufacturers are also looking at other products within the POCT category. These include devices related to molecular diagnosis, electrolyte analysis, blood gases analysis, coagulation analysis and cardiac markers. Their shares in the global POCT market are small but growing rapidly. Major manufacturer such as Abbot, Roche, Siemens, and Johnson&Johnson have also been increasing their efforts in promoting products other than glucometer. With the U.S. and developed market as target markets, the manufacturer intend to introduce these products to healthcare facilities first and then to home setting. This process is similar to the successful market expansion of glucometer.