A tiny smartphone accessory that costs just $34 to make could soon become a player in the global fight against AIDS.
Tiffany Guo and Tassaneewan Laksanasopin, along with biomedical engineering researchers at Columbia University, have designed a smartphone accessory that can detect HIV with a finger prick and deliver results within 15 minutes.
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The diagnostic tool showed promising results in a small clinical trial in Kigali, Rwanda, where 96 patients from three health clinics participated over the course of two weeks. Researchers said the tool performed about as well as commercially available diagnostic tools currently being used, and that the test’s accuracy was right on track.
This development could be meaningful for places like Africa and other parts of the developing word, where early detection can help slow the spread of AIDS.
Guo, Laksanasopin and researchers hope the gadget will eventually receive regulatory approval from the World Health Organization.
“This work demonstrates that a full laboratory-quality immunoassay can be run on a smartphone accessory,” the study explains. “This low-cost dongle replicates all mechanical, optical, and electronic functions of a laboratory-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) without requiring any stored energy; all necessary power is drawn from a smartphone.”
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In addition to HIV, the gadget, which still remains unnamed, can also identify syphilis.
The development also opens the door for other advances in consumer electronics focused on making laboratory-based diagnostic tests available to almost anyone with access to a smartphone.
via Wired
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