At-Home Testing for Heart Failure, Transplant Patients: Can It Work?

Article Critique:  " At-Home Testing for Heart Failure, Transplant Patients: Can it Work?"

According to WHO, there are about 23 million people who had heart failure. Besides the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that 16,000 patients had undergone kidney transplant each year. Patients who are suffering from Cardiovascular disease or Renal disease need special care. It has always been expected that early detection of health condition will lower the chance of complexity. Since Laboratory testing and point of care testing are time-consuming and sometimes inconvenient, in the article " At-Home Testing for Heart Failure, Transplant Patients: Can it Work?" Mr. David Wild, a writer in Toronto, gave his opinion on the significance of At Home testing method for patients who had heart failure or had transplanted their kidney.

He referred to the views of Dr. Nerenz regarding the NT-proBNP guided treatment strategy. The patients were therefore measured their BNP level by Alere Heart Check system along with monitoring their weigh. Dr. Nerenz also researched a group of Kidney transplant recipients whose creatinine level and Blood Pressure were measured. Though the previous data was arranged as an automated registration process, the latter is collected manually. Dr. Nerenz agreed that the measuring process might give inaccurate value, but it will imply real-time information and exhibit more data. He justified that early detection will help to reduce the further complication of patients.

Although Mr. David Wild agreed with the advantages of economic, time convenient method Home Use Testing to prevent further complication; he also exemplified the diagnosis of glycogen storage disease type IIIa disorder and the necessity of POC testing by referring a case shared by Dr. Suh-Lailam.

Overall the reference of the article is generalised on a particular demographic region which limits the generalizability of larger population. Furthermore, instead of emphasising on the actual outcome of Home use testing, the article focused on statistics and indicators of disease. Therefore, the article did not explicitly mention the mortality rate or the after effect of patients who were hospitalised which would signify the outcome of the Home Use Test. The article is intended to be written neutrally. Still, it is unclear the actual opinion of the writer regarding the Home Use Test.

Certainly, accurate result, proper training of patients and following the instruction from the professional will undoubtedly result in an appropriate Home Use Test. However, it will never replace a professional test. This is why a correlation between the At Home testing method and POCT will be a fruitful method of patient care.