Patients hospitalized with acute exacerbation of COPD generally receive adequate hospital care, but there may be opportunities to improve care pharmacologically and with smoking cessation counseling and vaccination during and after hospitalization.

Measurement is the basis for assessing potential improvements in healthcare quality. Measures may be classified into four categories: volume, structure, outcome, and process (VSOP). Measures of each type should be used with a full understanding of their cost and benefit. Although volume and structure measures are easily collected, impact on healthcare results is not always clear. Process measures are generally more difficult and expensive to collect, and the relationship between process and outcomes is only recently being explored. Knowledge of measure types and relationships among them, as well as emerging evidence on the role of patient satisfaction, must be used to guide improvements and ultimately for demonstrating value in healthcare.

Molecular imprinting is a rapidly growing area of interest involving the synthesis of artificial recognition elements that enable the separation of analyte from a sample matrix and its determination. Traditionally, this approach can be successfully applied to small analyte (<1.5 kDa) separation/ extraction, but, more recently it is finding utility in biomimetic sensors. These sensors consist of a recognition element and a transducer similar to their biosensor counterparts, however, the fundamental distinction is that biomimetic sensors employ an artificial recognition element. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) employed as the recognition elements in biomimetic sensors contain binding sites complementary in shape and functionality to their target analyte. Despite the growing interest in molecularly imprinting techniques, the commercial adoption of this technology is yet to be widely realised for blood sample analysis. This review aims to assess the applicability of this technology for the point-of-care testing (POCT) of cardiovascular disease-related biomarkers. More specifically, molecular imprinting is critically evaluated with respect to the detection of cardiac biomarkers indicative of acute coronary syndrome (ACS), such as the cardiac troponins (cTns). The challenges associated with the synthesis of MIPs for protein detection are outlined, in addition to enhancement techniques that ultimately improve the analytical performance of biomimetic sensors. The mechanism of detection employed to convert the analyte concentration into a measurable signal in biomimetic sensors will be discussed. Furthermore, the analytical performance of these sensors will be compared with biosensors and their potential implementation within clinical settings will be considered. In addition, the most suitable application of these sensors for cardiovascular assessment will be presented.