Low Cost Point of Care Diagnostics & Global Health 

Frugal ScienceGlobal Health
Written By Prakash Lab

ABSTRACT

Access to diagnostics still remains a key determinant to health - with majority of the population of the planet still with no access to diagnostics services. This is heightened in low resource settings when even a basic anemia test is not accessible globally. Over a decade, as a lab, we have spent time in parts of the world trying to understand both social, economical and technical hurdles of inventing new diagnostics technologies and we have been able to bridge the gap to bring low cost point of care diagnostics to the masses. 

Several of the diagnostics tools we have developed include Octopi - an AI enabled automated microscopy based diagnostics for malaria, Tb and sickle cell disease. The tool is highly flexible and can perform real time diagnostics - and can be adapted to many other diagnostics tests. With a consortium based approach of partners globally, we are developing a large number of apps that can be developed by the community. Other tools include Paperfuge, a general purpose platform for centrifugation in the field an anemia test, GlowDx: a molecular diagnostics platform currently under development and Abuzz: an AI based classifier for mosquitoes species based on the buzzing sound of mosquitoes recorded by citizens at large. 

For all the tools developed in the lab, we do large scale validation and usability studies - enabling us to understand the drivers of adaptability of these tools in specific country context. 

BIG QUESTION

“How can we increase access to affordable, point-of-care diagnostics toward improving global health?”

 
Prakash Lab
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