Point-of-care devices, also referred to as patient-side or in-clinic devices, are laboratory equipment and automated instruments used to perform laboratory testing in proximity to patients outside of a commercial or reference laboratory.
All POC devices require regular maintenance as part of a quality management plan (see second article in this series), and POC instruments also require calibration and use of QCMs to ensure accurate performance. The purpose of this article is to introduce quality-assurance concepts regarding POC instruments and
