Biomedical Diagnostics: Recent Advances and Trends
Biomedical diagnostics is the process of detecting and identifying biomarkers, pathogens, diseases, or other biological conditions using various analytical methods and devices. Biomedical diagnostics plays a vital role in clinical decision making, disease management, and public health. However, conventional diagnostic methods often require sophisticated equipment, trained personnel, and centralized laboratories, which limit their accessibility, affordability, and timeliness, especially in resource-limited settings.
Point-of-Care Diagnostics (POCD)
To overcome these limitations, point-of-care diagnostics (POCD) has emerged as a promising alternative that can provide rapid, accurate, and low-cost testing at or near the site of patient care. POCD can enable early diagnosis, timely treatment, and improved patient outcomes. POCD can also facilitate disease surveillance, outbreak response, and health promotion.
Recent years have witnessed tremendous advances in POCD, which are a result of continuous developments in biosensors, microfluidic, bioanalytical platforms, assay formats, lab-on-a-chip technologies, and complementary technologies. These advances have enabled the detection of various biomolecules, pathogens, and diseases using different sample types, such as blood, saliva, urine, sweat, breath, and tears. Some examples of POCD applications include:
– Glucose monitoring for diabetes management
– HIV testing for screening and diagnosis
– Malaria diagnosis using rapid diagnostic tests
– COVID-19 detection using antigen or antibody tests
– Cancer biomarker detection using electrochemical or optical sensors
– Genetic testing using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or isothermal amplification
– Drug abuse testing using lateral flow immunoassays
– Food safety testing using biosensors or microfluidic devices
Challenges and Opportunities
Despite the significant progress in POCD, there are still many challenges and opportunities for further improvement and innovation. Some of the current challenges include:
– Ensuring the quality, reliability, and standardization of POCD devices and results
– Integrating POCD devices with data management systems and telemedicine platforms
– Developing multiplexed and multiparametric POCD devices for simultaneous detection of multiple analytes or diseases
– Enhancing the sensitivity, specificity, and selectivity of POCD devices for low-abundance or complex analytes or diseases
– Reducing the cost, size, power consumption, and environmental impact of POCD devices
– Increasing the user-friendliness, portability, disposability, and durability of POCD devices
– Addressing the ethical, social, legal, and regulatory issues related to POCD
To address these challenges and exploit the opportunities, interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers from different fields, such as biology, chemistry, engineering, medicine, public health, and social sciences is essential. Moreover, active engagement with end-users, stakeholders, policymakers, and regulators is crucial to ensure the relevance, acceptance, adoption, and impact of POCD.
Conclusion
Biomedical diagnostics is a dynamic and evolving field that has significant implications for human health and well-being. POCD is a promising approach that can provide fast, accurate,
and affordable testing at or near the site of patient care. Recent advances in POCD have enabled the detection of various biomolecules,
pathogens,
and diseases using different sample types. However,
there are still many challenges and opportunities for further improvement and innovation in POCD. Interdisciplinary collaboration and active engagement with end-users,
stakeholders,
policymakers,
and regulators are essential to ensure the relevance,
acceptance,
adoption,
and impact of POCD.
References
[1] Acharya B., Acharya A., Gautam S., Ghimire S.P., Mishra G., Parajuli N., Sapkota B., Advances in diagnosis of Tuberculosis: an update into molecular diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Molecular Biology Reports 47 , 4065–4075 ( 2020). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11033-020-05413-7
[2] Biomedical News & Articles – IEEE Spectrum. https://spectrum.ieee.org/topic/biomedical/
[3] Data Acquisition – Recent Advances and Applications in Biomedical Engineering. https://www.intechopen.com/books/9973
[4] Point-of-Care Diagnostics: Recent Advances and Trends – MDPI. Biosensors 7 , 62 ( 2017). https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6374/7/4/62
