Aims

The demand for test requests from general practice to laboratory services remains high. Tests performed at the point of care could reduce turnaround time and speed up clinical decision making. Replicating laboratory testing in the community would require panels of tests to be performed simultaneously, which is now approaching technological feasibility. We assessed frequencies and combinations of test requests from community settings to inform the potential future development of multiplex point of care panels.

Methods

We assessed all laboratory test requests made from general practice in Oxfordshire, UK, January 2014-March 2017. We summarised test request frequency overall and in combination, using heat maps and hierarchical cluster analysis. Results are also presented by age/sex subgroups. We further assessed patterns of tests requested within 7 and 14 days after an initial test request.

Results

11,763,473 test requests were made for 413,073 individuals (28% age>65). Of more than 500 test types, 62 were requested at least 5,000 times, most commonly Renal Function Tests (approximately 296,000/year), Full Blood Count (278,000/year) and Liver Function Tests (237,000/year). Cluster analysis additionally identified a clear grouping of tests commonly used to investigate anaemia. Follow-up test frequency was much lower than the frequency of multiple tests ordered at initial presentation.

Conclusions

The current high volume of single and combination test requests highlights an opportunity for reliable multiplex point of care panels to cover a core set of frequently requested tests. The impact on test use of introducing such panels to general practice requires additional research.