It is at least a decade since scientists turned their imaginations to
creating new compact, portable test instruments and self-contained test
kits that could be used to analyze urine and saliva for alcohol, drugs,
and their metabolites. Although the potential applications for such
tests at the site of specimen collection, now called "on-site" or
"point-of-care" testing, range far beyond hospital emergency rooms and
law enforcement needs, it was catalyzed by the requirements of workplace
drug testing and other drugs-of-abuse testing programs. These programs
are now a minor national industry in the United States and in some
western European countries, and cover populations as diverse as the
military, incarcerated criminals, people suspected of driving under the
influence of alcohol and other drugs, all athletes from college to
professional ranks, and of course the general employed population, which
is monitored for illegal drug use and numbers in the millions. It is not
surprising, then, that the need for rapid and precise tests, conducted
economically by trained professionals, has become a major goal. Current
government approved and peer reviewed laboratory methods for urine
analysis serve present needs very well and have become remarkably robust
over the past twenty years, but the logistics of testing some moving
populations, such as the military, the Coast Guard, workers on off-shore
oil platforms, and athletes--perhaps the most mobile of these
groups--are unacceptably cumbersome.
