Point-of-Care Diagnostic Technologies for Antimicrobial Resistance: Principles, Platforms, Clinical Impact, and Future Directions

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an ever-growing threat to global healthcare. It is largely driven by delayed or inadequate pathogen identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing in routine clinical workflows. By the time the clinician receives results to guide treatment from traditional culture-based diagnostics, several days may have elapsed, leading to the use and potential over-prescription of broad-spectrum antibiotics and the development of resistant pathogens. A rapid and clinically actionable diagnostic approach at the clinical point of care (POC) may help address this gap. This review examines current and emerging POC diagnostic technologies for AMR and outlines the fundamental principles and mechanistic classifications of POC diagnostic technologies. These include phenotypic, genotypic, immunological, and biosensor-based approaches. A critical overview of key technological platforms, including rapid phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST), microfluidics and isothermal nucleic acid amplification (e.g., LAMP and RPA), CRISPR-based diagnostics, nanomaterial-enhanced biosensors, and mobile-integrated systems is provided. The impact of POC diagnostics on antimicrobial stewardship, time to appropriate therapy, and patient outcomes in primary care settings, hospitals, intensive care units, and resource-limited settings is presented and discussed. In addition to clinical implementation challenges, this review considers the issues of analytical performance, workflow, regulatory pathways, cost, and implementation readiness. In addition, it outlines key trends regarding digital integration, surveillance, workforce training, and policy frameworks. Overall, the review outlines the role of POC diagnostics in enhancing antimicrobial response surveillance and the global fight against AMR. Among emerging platforms, rapid phenotypic AST, microfluidic and isothermal-based assays, CRISPR-based diagnostics, and integrated biosensor systems show the greatest potential for near-term clinical impact; however, widespread implementation remains constrained by challenges related to clinical validation, cost, workflow integration, and alignment with antimicrobial stewardship frameworks.