Smart rapid diagnostics test reader running on a cell-phone for real-time mapping of epidemics

  • Authors:

  • Onur Mudanyali;Swati Padmanabhan;Stoyan Dimitrov;Isa Navruz;Uzair Sikora;Aydogan Ozcan

  • Affiliations:

  • UC Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA;UC Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA;UC Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA;UC Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA;UC Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA;UC Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the Second ACM Workshop on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services for HealthCare
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

Rapid diagnostics tests (e.g., immuno-chromatographic assays and other lateral-flow tests) offer significant advantages over conventional approaches (i.e., clinical examination and advanced medical tests) for the surveillance of infectious diseases especially in the remote parts of the world. In order to provide an integrated platform for automated digital reading and real-time mapping of rapid diagnostics tests (RDTs), we developed a universal RDT reader running on a cell-phone that can automatically digitize and evaluate various diagnostics test results. A custom-developed cell-phone application automatically processes raw transmission and reflection RDT images that are digitally acquired using a compact and cost-effective hardware attachment to generate semi-quantitative test evaluation reports. The same cell-phone application also connects this RDT reader to a central database/server that stores and displays RDT evaluation reports, mapping infectious diseases in real-time. Powered by the cell-phone battery or two AAA batteries, RDT reader attachment utilizes simple off-the-shelf components (e.g., multiple diffused light-emitting diode (LED) arrays and a plano-convex lens) and can be customized to fit on different cell-phone devices (i.e., iPhone and Android phones) without any major changes on its design. Providing spatio-temporal statistics for the prevalence of various infectious diseases, this integrated RDT reader platform can be especially useful to support epidemiological studies to fight against global health related problems. Here, we review our recent progress on this cellphone based RDT reader platform and discuss its potential use toward real-time mapping of various diseases globally.