Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Crit Care Med. Jun 9, 2025; 14(2): 100623
Published online Jun 9, 2025. doi: 10.5492/wjccm.v14.i2.100623
Transformative impact of point-of-care testing in critical care
Pradeep K Dabla, Aashima Dabas
Pradeep K Dabla, Department of Biochemistry, Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Postgraduate Education and Research, Associated Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi 110002, Delhi, India
Aashima Dabas, Department of Pediatrics, Maulana Azad Medical College and associated Lok Nayak Hospital, New Delhi 110002, Delhi, India
Author contributions: Dabla PK designed the overall concept and outline of the manuscript; Dabas A contributed to discussion and design of manuscript; Dabla PK and Dabas A contributed to writing and editing of the manuscript; and all authors thoroughly reviewed and endorsed the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Pradeep K Dabla, MD, Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Postgraduate Education and Research, Associated Maulana Azad Medical College, 1 Jawaharlal Nehru Marg, 64 Khamba, Raj Ghat, New Delhi 110002, Delhi, India. pradeep_dabla@yahoo.com
Received: August 21, 2024
Revised: January 6, 2025
Accepted: January 14, 2025
Published online: June 9, 2025
Processing time: 189 Days and 23.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Point-of-care testing has transformed patient management in emergency and intensive care settings by delivering rapid, on-the-spot biochemical and microbiological evaluations. This allows swift clinical decisions which are pivotal for severe medical conditions such as sepsis. Research highlights a strong agreement between point-of-care testing and central lab results for key analytes such as electrolytes and lactate, which is crucial for accurate assessments and timely interventions. Despite the challenges such as sample handling variability, future advancements, including artificial intelligence, hold the potential for faster and more accurate diagnostics, improving overall healthcare quality.