Journal Article

Pre-market health systems barriers and enablers to infectious diseases point-of-care diagnostics in Australia: qualitative interviews with key informants

Applegate, Tanya L., Treloar, Carla, Lafferty, Lise, Drysdale, Kerryn, Lewis, Sophie, Guy, Rebecca, Monaghan, Robert, Kelly-Hanku, Angela

2024

Overview

Background There exist multiple regulatory layers for point-of-care (POC) testing to be implemented within Australia. This qualitative analysis sought to understand the pre-market barriers and facilitators to scale-up infectious diseases POC testing in primary care settings at the national level. Methods Key informant interviews were undertaken with people ( n  = 30) working in high- level positions relevant to infectious diseases POC testing in Australia. Participants were recruited from federal and state health departments, industry, and nongovernment national peak bodies. The Unitaid scalability framework informed this analysis to understand barriers and enablers to creating access conditions and establishing country readiness for market access of POC tests. Results Participants identified regulatory frameworks as significant barriers to market access. National strategies and advocacy were viewed as potential enablers to establishing country readiness. It was recommended that the national system for universal health care should fund infectious disease POC tests to ensure financial sustainability, though the existing pathology infrastructure was regarded as a likely inhibitor. Conclusions Current regulatory frameworks inhibit market access for infectious disease POC testing devices for use in the primary care setting. National advocacy is urgently needed to gain government support and align national policies with regulatory frameworks.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Antibiotics / Australia / Communicable Diseases - diagnosis / COVID-19 / Data collection / Dosage and administration / Drug addicts / Federal regulation / Funding / Health aspects / Hepatitis C / Humans / Infectious Diseases / Internal Medicine / Interviews / Interviews as Topic / Laboratories / Market entry / Medical equipment / Medical errors / Medical Microbiology / Medical research / Medicare / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Native peoples / Parasitology / Pathology / Point of care testing / Point-of-Care Systems / Politics / Prevention / Primary care / Primary Health Care / Public health / Qualitative analysis / Qualitative Research / Regulatory frameworks / Risk factors / Sexually transmitted diseases / Social aspects / Sustainability / Tropical Medicine