Het ándere lab (The other lab)

Star-shl has a successful CRP POCT service in nearly 400 GP practices. And POCT is evolving.

Not everything is good for our customers. In the past year, we have worked hard to prepare and start up various POCT pilots with input from new IT applications. All this to raise the quality of POCT in general practice even higher, in accordance with regular laboratory standards and the Dutch guideline POCT in general practice (NHG-NVKC-NVMM-SAN).

We have now started the next phase: we are gradually rolling out a first set of new POCT determinations within defined pilots in 14 GP practices.

We are working closely together with IQ healthcare, Radboudumc, distributors and international suppliers of POCT equipment, IT companies, some of our most innovative general practitioners, nurse practitioners, practice assistants and, of course, the patients themselves. We are formally evaluating the various POCT pilots both for the outside world, and for ourselves. Over 500 new POC tests have now been carried out. But we still have far too few completed patient evaluation forms to be able to conduct a meaningful, formal evaluation.

Additionally, we have worked with several medical staff members and other POCT experts on short overview articles of various POCT applications. These articles, together with several interviews with POCT experts, were published in the monthly magazine FarmaMagazine, which is distributed to 5,000 general practitioners and pharmacists. Star-shl and publisher Flexx have bundled these contributions in the booklet “Het ándere lab: point-of-care testing in general practice” (in Dutch only) which was published in late January 2020.

The Jan Schueler Foundation is supporting this initiative on the basis of its objective to make new laboratory diagnostics available for primary care.