IT’S NO bigger than a credit card, but the new “mchip” blood-testing device could revolutionise healthcare in the developing world, by offering cheaper, quicker and more accurate results than ever before, according to the researchers from Colombia University in New York who helped develop it.
Using a prototype of the device (mchip stands for mobile microfluidic chip for immunoassay on protein markers), they carried out hundreds of tests on blood samples in Muhima Hospital in Kigali, Rwanda, returning results within 15 minutes.
At present, results can take days or even weeks because blood samples have to be sent to a laboratory, meaning many patients don’t bother to return to the testing site to get their results.
A pinprick of blood was taken from each test subject, and inserted into the device, which is contained in an injection-moulded plastic casing and has no moving parts and requires no electricity. The blood then passes over 10 unique detection zones, which return a positive or negative HIV/Aids result within minutes. The results are displayed in a simple colour-coded format not unlike a pregnancy test, making it easy to use and understand.
According to Samuel K Sia, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia Engineering, the device could potentially detect hepatitis B and C, herpes, gonorrhoea and other sexually transmitted diseases such as chlamydia with just one pinprick of blood.
With a projected cost of $1 (€0.73), the chip is far cheaper than laboratory based tests currently used, meaning one of the main barriers to combating infectious diseases in Africa could soon come down.