This is actually how existing diagnostic machines work generally - mix blood or plasma with a reagent, incubate at body temp for some time, measure how the light properties of the sample (color, turbidity, depends on the test) change over time. Some tests measure 1 point at the end of the test, some measure several and construct a non-linear function.
The interesting part is that they're building a machine that can get accurate results with low-cost off-the-shelf components. State-of-the-art systems typically cost somewhere between 50k and 500k, which may or may not include service agreements (they break down all the time - wet chemistry) and ongoing costs for supplies.
I imagine the main wins in this area would be:
- built with low-cost/commodity components (done)
- small physical size for transport (done)
-- systems come in a variety of sizes from bedside to the size of a small car, depending on where you want to run them (operating suite/doctor's office vs central lab) and the volume you need.
- expanded operating temperature and humidity
-- existing systems have fairly tight tolerances on humidity especially, all the systems I worked with had environmental sensors installed nearby.
- low-power enough to run on batteries or small generators easily in remote environments
That these women are working their way down the list is impressive and much needed. As mentioned in the article, reagents are available commercially so that part is relatively "solved," although depending on the test they can be quite expensive and have their own cold-storage and transport problems for remote areas. The other big problem is affordable control material to ensure the systems are still accurate, and calibration material to adjust system constants when they inevitably drift (same cost/storage/transport problems as reagents). Still though, I'm glad they're making progress.
It's a neat system, although I fear the major hurdles (in the early days at least) will be getting a license for a diagnostics lab with these equipments and doctors approving the test results.
Also worked in lab diagnostics for quite a while. You're correct about the process. I'd add that the only particularly expensive piece of hardware along the chain is the light detection at the end. Sure, you need high precision pumps to dispense reagents & sample accurately, but if you're not running at industrial scale, those aren't that hard to DIY. And, of course, some reagents will be expensive as you said.
On the machines we built, the reaction products bound to a light-emitting material and we used photomultiplier tubes to measure the light output at the end. I believe this is more sensitive than the occlusion/scattering methods in the article. The problem is that PMTs are pretty expensive to buy new and their calibration needs to be checked periodically.
I have wondered if it would be possible to make a cheaper version using large-area PIN diodes, or with lenses to collect as much light as possible. Never saw any research being done in this area though.
They took a very complex system (rockets) that was custom-made and had to be extremely reliable. And then they looked at every component and tried to re-engineer it to optimize for costs. And they have been hugely successful doing it.
I have a common medical condition which is easily monitored via a common blood test.
It seems to fluctuate quite a bit, and if I could get frequent readings I could figure out what is affecting it, and I could better understand it's effect on me.
But the medical system in my country does not allow for frequent readings, probably for good reason - it would be very expensive. And a hassle going to a lab frequently.
So I'm excited to read about this device and hope the tech matures quickly.
Abstract: The development of a cost-efficient and sensitive platform for biochemical analysis of blood serum and its realization in the low resource areas is one of the imperative challenges to establish a robust healthcare ecosystem. The present work demonstrates the design of a universal platform, capable of performing all biochemical analyses of blood serum by measuring the absorbance of light through the test sample. To verify the working of the developed platform, the concentration of glucose was estimated in blood serum. The detection of glucose has been accomplished in a linear range of 1 mg/dL to 400 mg/dL with detection of limit 1 mg/dL (R2 = 0.9875, n=3). The stability analysis demonstrates improved stability in the output as compared to the conventional analyzer with an average standard deviation of 0.32 calculated for n=5. Human blood samples were tested with the developed platform and the results were in line with the pathology laboratory. The developed platform offers the advantages of automation, low cost, portability, simple instrumentation, flexibility, and an easily accessible interface. Due to the use of a huge processing capability processor, the analysis time reduces to half a minute which yields fast analysis and high throughput. The stability and accuracy also improve owing to the employment of high-resolution electronics components. Overall, the proposed framework is an attractive solution to be incorporated in the low resource area as a universal platform for all biochemistry analysis simply by varying the wavelength of light and reagent.
Stuff like this is always cool and gee whiz, but it will never muster in the US that I know of, and I suspect most developed countries.
Anything on the bedside, especially in ICU, has to be examined by the FDA to the point where they want to know exactly what the chemical composition of parts are. If there's a risk of things releasing fumes that might be dangerous for a sick patient if the device gets too warm, they'll ding it. Diagnostic software powering these devices are scrutinized by the FDA, too.
A company called "Anidra" (Australia + India) is offering the full package (HW based on the PM6100 and cloud based Monitoring SW) both for Hospital and Home use: http://www.anidra.com.au/ and https://www.anidra.in/
Why aren't more low cost Medical devices available easily and cheaply? Given the power/price ratio we have achieved with cellphones, why can't the same be done in the field of Medical devices?
For example, i was looking for a all-in-one monitoring device for an elderly patient and came across "PM6100" made by "Shanghai Berry Electronics" (https://shberrymed.com/products/patient-monitor-pm6100) Low-cost but still more expensive than many cellphones. These things should be commodity priced. It almost feels like there is some "organized cartel" preventing the invention and marketing of low-cost medical devices.
Red tape. Medical devices need to (depending on type and country) conform to medical device regulations, be approved by a medical device regulator, be sold only to medical professionals or people with a script from a medical professional. Liability in case something goes wrong because of your device is expensive, adversarial and dependent on crossing all the 'i's and dotting all the 't's. There are "lower levels" of this due to regulations being less for more harmless devices. E.g. you can nowadays get thermometer, pulse-oximeter or a blood pressure meter quite cheaply. But anything just mimimally more complicated or critical gets expensive very fast.
Reasons for this beside the red tape are imho the low number of customers (most slightly specialized medical devices are needed once per patient with $rare_disease, once per lab or once per doctors office), the high need for customization (one-size-fits-all doesn't even work for blood pressure cuffs, let alone prosthetics), localization (broken i18n can kill, most customers are elderly and therefore not as versed in engrish), higher component cost (sterilizable plastics are more expensive, bigger displays for vision-impaired elderly clients are more expensive) and acceptance of foreign/small/unknown manufacturers (won't trust my elderly mother's health to a device from "Corty's Refurbished Asbestos Plates, Health Equipment and Luxuries Ltd., Templestreet, HongKong (CRAPHEALLTH)").
There is also a cartel of each medical professionals, manufacturers, insurance companies/public insurance pools and politicians, complete with revolving doors, kickbacks, fake or real -but always suspiciously convenient- scientific data, and exclusionary legal situations. All cementing the status quo and the wealth and standing of all participants (except the patients' of course).
These things couldn't be commodity priced (comparable to a smartphone) until they are manufactured at similar scale. You just don't need as much medical devices.
[+] [-] CptFribble|4 years ago|reply
The interesting part is that they're building a machine that can get accurate results with low-cost off-the-shelf components. State-of-the-art systems typically cost somewhere between 50k and 500k, which may or may not include service agreements (they break down all the time - wet chemistry) and ongoing costs for supplies.
I imagine the main wins in this area would be:
- built with low-cost/commodity components (done)
- small physical size for transport (done)
- expanded operating temperature and humidity - low-power enough to run on batteries or small generators easily in remote environmentsThat these women are working their way down the list is impressive and much needed. As mentioned in the article, reagents are available commercially so that part is relatively "solved," although depending on the test they can be quite expensive and have their own cold-storage and transport problems for remote areas. The other big problem is affordable control material to ensure the systems are still accurate, and calibration material to adjust system constants when they inevitably drift (same cost/storage/transport problems as reagents). Still though, I'm glad they're making progress.
I look forward to more!
Source: worked in lab diagnostics for a while
[+] [-] rex_lupi|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] HeyLaughingBoy|4 years ago|reply
On the machines we built, the reaction products bound to a light-emitting material and we used photomultiplier tubes to measure the light output at the end. I believe this is more sensitive than the occlusion/scattering methods in the article. The problem is that PMTs are pretty expensive to buy new and their calibration needs to be checked periodically.
I have wondered if it would be possible to make a cheaper version using large-area PIN diodes, or with lenses to collect as much light as possible. Never saw any research being done in this area though.
[+] [-] 908B64B197|4 years ago|reply
They took a very complex system (rockets) that was custom-made and had to be extremely reliable. And then they looked at every component and tried to re-engineer it to optimize for costs. And they have been hugely successful doing it.
[+] [-] tomComb|4 years ago|reply
It seems to fluctuate quite a bit, and if I could get frequent readings I could figure out what is affecting it, and I could better understand it's effect on me.
But the medical system in my country does not allow for frequent readings, probably for good reason - it would be very expensive. And a hassle going to a lab frequently.
So I'm excited to read about this device and hope the tech matures quickly.
[+] [-] ad404b8a372f2b9|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] OJFord|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gerdesj|4 years ago|reply
They are published: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9524612
So, you (OJFord) could not be bothered with either reading the simplified synopsis or if you did, understanding the original article.
Why even bother to comment, when you have nothing to give?
[+] [-] gremloni|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ssivark|4 years ago|reply
Abstract: The development of a cost-efficient and sensitive platform for biochemical analysis of blood serum and its realization in the low resource areas is one of the imperative challenges to establish a robust healthcare ecosystem. The present work demonstrates the design of a universal platform, capable of performing all biochemical analyses of blood serum by measuring the absorbance of light through the test sample. To verify the working of the developed platform, the concentration of glucose was estimated in blood serum. The detection of glucose has been accomplished in a linear range of 1 mg/dL to 400 mg/dL with detection of limit 1 mg/dL (R2 = 0.9875, n=3). The stability analysis demonstrates improved stability in the output as compared to the conventional analyzer with an average standard deviation of 0.32 calculated for n=5. Human blood samples were tested with the developed platform and the results were in line with the pathology laboratory. The developed platform offers the advantages of automation, low cost, portability, simple instrumentation, flexibility, and an easily accessible interface. Due to the use of a huge processing capability processor, the analysis time reduces to half a minute which yields fast analysis and high throughput. The stability and accuracy also improve owing to the employment of high-resolution electronics components. Overall, the proposed framework is an attractive solution to be incorporated in the low resource area as a universal platform for all biochemistry analysis simply by varying the wavelength of light and reagent.
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] rscho|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] junon|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] snapetom|4 years ago|reply
Anything on the bedside, especially in ICU, has to be examined by the FDA to the point where they want to know exactly what the chemical composition of parts are. If there's a risk of things releasing fumes that might be dangerous for a sick patient if the device gets too warm, they'll ding it. Diagnostic software powering these devices are scrutinized by the FDA, too.
[+] [-] antattack|4 years ago|reply
It may work, and it may work very well in fact. However, if you can afford it - you'd opt for something with more reliability and consistency.
[+] [-] rramadass|4 years ago|reply
A company called "Anidra" (Australia + India) is offering the full package (HW based on the PM6100 and cloud based Monitoring SW) both for Hospital and Home use: http://www.anidra.com.au/ and https://www.anidra.in/
[+] [-] maxwellwhite|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rramadass|4 years ago|reply
For example, i was looking for a all-in-one monitoring device for an elderly patient and came across "PM6100" made by "Shanghai Berry Electronics" (https://shberrymed.com/products/patient-monitor-pm6100) Low-cost but still more expensive than many cellphones. These things should be commodity priced. It almost feels like there is some "organized cartel" preventing the invention and marketing of low-cost medical devices.
[+] [-] corty|4 years ago|reply
Reasons for this beside the red tape are imho the low number of customers (most slightly specialized medical devices are needed once per patient with $rare_disease, once per lab or once per doctors office), the high need for customization (one-size-fits-all doesn't even work for blood pressure cuffs, let alone prosthetics), localization (broken i18n can kill, most customers are elderly and therefore not as versed in engrish), higher component cost (sterilizable plastics are more expensive, bigger displays for vision-impaired elderly clients are more expensive) and acceptance of foreign/small/unknown manufacturers (won't trust my elderly mother's health to a device from "Corty's Refurbished Asbestos Plates, Health Equipment and Luxuries Ltd., Templestreet, HongKong (CRAPHEALLTH)").
There is also a cartel of each medical professionals, manufacturers, insurance companies/public insurance pools and politicians, complete with revolving doors, kickbacks, fake or real -but always suspiciously convenient- scientific data, and exclusionary legal situations. All cementing the status quo and the wealth and standing of all participants (except the patients' of course).
[+] [-] ComodoHacker|4 years ago|reply
These things couldn't be commodity priced (comparable to a smartphone) until they are manufactured at similar scale. You just don't need as much medical devices.
[+] [-] Kenji|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] spraveenitpro|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] betimsl|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] detaro|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ludovicianul|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] detaro|4 years ago|reply