The global market for point-of-care diagnostics, valued at $13.8 billion in 2011, is expected to increase to $16.5 billion in 2016, according to a new report Point-of-Care Diagnostics from BCC Research.

The five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is forecast at 3.7 percent.

The market for point-of-care (POC) diagnostics can be broken down into 10 segments: glucose monitoring, blood chemistry and electrolyte, pregnancy and fertility, cardiac markers, drug and alcohol, infectious disease, cholesterol, hemoglobin/hemostasis, urine chemistry and tumor marker.

The largest segment of the market, glucose monitoring, totaled $7.5 billion in 2011, and is expected to increase at a CAGR of 0.3 percent to $7.6 billion in 2016.

Blood chemistry and electrolyte, the second-largest segment, totaled nearly $2.3 billion in 2011, and after increasing at a CAGR of 4.8 percent the segment is expected reach nearly $2.9 billion in 2016.

The fastest-growing segment, cardiac markers, is projected to increase at a CAGR of 14.4 percent, rising from $1 billion in 2011 to $2 billion in 2016.

The infectious disease and tumor marker segments have the next highest projected growth rates, with both expected to increase at CAGRs of more than 10 percent.

Globally, the diagnostic testing business is a multibillion-dollar industry with intense competition and areas of high growth, BCC researchers note. The United States is the world’s largest single market for diagnostic testing. This study focuses on POC testing, one of the most active segments within the diagnostic industry. POC testing is growing in both home use and near-patient applications. Both segments are included in this market study.

POC testing includes any screening or diagnostic test that is performed outside the main hospital laboratory. Over the last decade, more diagnostic tests have been performed at patients’ bedsides in hospitals, in physicians’ office laboratories, outpatient clinics, emergency rooms, and intensive-critical-care units. The wider availability of POC testing has revolutionized the continuum of the patient-care process by providing laboratory results rapidly and efficiently at these locations. The trend toward greater POC testing is driven by the faster diagnostic benefits it provides, according to BCC Research.

Several other reasons have emerged for the high demand of POC testing, including staff shortages, older populations, long-term cost savings and rural locations without conventional laboratory services.