Clinical effectiveness and analytical quality of a national point-of-care testing network for sexually transmitted infections integrated into rural and remote primary care clinics in Australia, 2016-2022: an observational program evaluation.

• Published in: The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific
• Main Authors: Causer, Louise M, Ward, James, Smith, Kirsty, Saha, Amit, Andrewartha, Kelly, Wand, Handan, Hengel, Belinda, Badman, Steven G, Tangey, Annie, Matthews, Susan, Mak, Donna, Gunathilake, Manoji, Moore, Elizabeth, Speers, David, Persing, David, Anderson, David, Whiley, David, Maher, Lisa, Regan, David, Donovan, Basil, Fairley, Christopher, Kaldor, John, Shephard, Mark, Guy, Rebecca
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: PubMed Central 2024
• Subjects: Chlamydia; Clinical effectiveness; Gonorrhoea; Implementation; POC testing; Scaling up; Sexually transmitted infections; Trichomoniasis; First Nations
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanwpc.2024.101110; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38952441; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11215331/

To address inequitable diagnostic access and improve time-to-treatment for First Nations peoples, molecular point-of-care (POC) testing for chlamydia, gonorrhoea and trichomonas was integrated into 49 primary care clinics across Australia. We conducted an observational evaluation to determine clinical effectiveness and analytical quality of POC testing delivered through this national program.