As part of a piece of concept design work, Cambridge Consultants recently introduced ‘Flow Hub’ with the title of ‘bringing the (diagnostics) lab into the home’. What was it that drove that concept of home health testing and what has happened in terms of both technology and market changes for that concept to be a possibility?
In pure diagnostic technology terms there are a number of detection approaches that would lend themselves to the new concept, ranging from optics (colorimetric, fluorescent, time-resolved fluoresence) to electrochemical or variations of each. Each has advantages and disadvantages but all are capable of being packaged in the self-contained consumable device that we envisaged.
Microfluidic technology has become more robust and is in widespread use in devices already on the market, and pre-packaging liquid or freeze-dried reagents in the device have also been proven, allowing the consumable to be stored at room temperature rather than in a fridge – a prerequisite if testing is to be home based.
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