Portable devices and mobile instruments for infectious diseases point-of-care testing

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Rapidity, simplicity, and portability are highly desirable characteristics of tests and devices designed for performing diagnostics at the point of care (POC), either near patients managed in healthcare facilities or to offer bioanalytical alternatives in external settings. By reducing the turnaround time of the diagnostic cycle, POC diagnostics can reduce the dissemination, morbidity, and mortality of infectious diseases and provide tools to control the global threat of antimicrobial resistance.

Areas covered: A literature search of PubMed and Google Scholar, and extensive mining of specialized publications, Internet resources, and manufacturers’ websites have been used to organize and write this overview of the challenges and requirements associated with the development of portable sample-to-answer diagnostics, and showcase relevant examples of handheld devices, portable instruments, and less mobile systems which may or could be operated at POC.

Expert commentary: Rapid (<1 h) diagnostics can contribute to control infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistant pathogens. Portable devices or instruments enabling sample-to-answer bioanalysis can provide rapid, robust, and reproducible testing at the POC or close from it. Beyond testing, to realize some promises of personalized/precision medicine, it will be critical to connect instruments to healthcare data management systems, to efficiently link decentralized testing results to the electronic medical record of patients.

KEYWORDS:

• Infectious diseases
• rapid molecular diagnostics
• point-of-care
• CLIA-waived POC tests
• sample-to-answer bioanalysis
• portability
• mobility
• connectivity
• cybersecurity
• personalized/precision medicine

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr Maurice Boissinot, and Sébastien Chapdelaine and Dr Herbert Torfs of GenePOC Inc. for helpful suggestions.

Declaration of interest

M.G. Bergeron is founder of GenePOC Inc. of Québec City (Québec), Canada. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was funded by the Fonds de partenariat pour un Québec innovant et en santé (Ministère de l'Économie, de l'Innovation et des Exportations, Gouvernement du Québec, Canada).