Decentralised COVID ‐19 molecular point‐of‐care testing: lessons from implementing a primary care‐based network in remote Australian communities

作者：Belinda Hengel, Rebecca Guy, Dawn Casey, Lorraine Anderson, Kirsty Smith, Kelly Andrewartha, Tanya D Applegate, Amit Saha, Philip Cunningham, Lucas DeToca, William D. Rawlinson, Marianne Martinello, Annie Tangey, Prital Patel, Mark Shephard, Susan Matthews, Louise Causer · 发表于：The Medical Journal of Australia · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.5694/mja2.52589 · 被引用次数：8 · 研究领域：SARS-CoV-2 detection and testing、COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies、Long-Term Effects of COVID-19

First Nations people experience high levels of chronic disease, resulting from a history of colonisation, institutional racism and policies that have disempowered participation in practices that would otherwise support health and wellbeing.1, 2 In addition, First Nations people living in remote areas have limited access to primary and specialist care, hospital and pathology services and reduced infrastructure.3, 4 These factors contribute to infectious diseases having a disproportionately greater impact on First Nations people living in remote areas compared with urban settings.4, 5 Funded by the Australian Government and with First Nations-led governance, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander COVID-19 Point-of-Care Testing Program (hereafter referred to as the program) was implemented in early 2020. Testing was conducted by primary care clinicians using the GeneXpert assay for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2, Cepheid) enabling increased access to molecular-based testing, and therefore quicker results. The program rapidly became the world's largest decentralised SARS-CoV-2 molecular point-of-care (POC) testing network.6 The program was delivered across three distinct epidemiological phases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic in Australia, each with associated public health responses (Box 1). To inform future infectious disease pandemic preparedness and responses, we used an adapted POC testing framework,...