Operating system

Risk analysis (engineering)

Physics

Engineering

Business

Nursing

Marketing

Chip

Nanotechnology

Materials science

Systems engineering

Software

Realisation

Commercialization

Computer science

Point of care

Quantum mechanics

Medicine

Telecommunications

Microfluidics

TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry

The development of lab-on-a-chip technology and its applications in biochemical and biomedical analyses has, during the last two decades, led to the potential realisation of portable and on-site detection devices, the so-called point-of-care (PoC) detection systems. These are essentially cheap, easy-to-handle systems, offering rapid sample-to-answer results to non-technical operators. In this perspective, we do not review all the current advances of Lab-on-a-chip techniques for the realisation of PoC. Instead, we aim to provide insight into what we foresee as the three most important factors to play the essential roles for succeeding in making commercially viable PoC pathogen-detection devices. The three insights are namely: the utilizations of (i) disposable polymer (microfluidic) chips, (ii) the implementation of surface-bound (or solid-phase) nucleic-acid amplification techniques and (iii) relying (more) on open-source hardware and software.

Point-of-care devices for pathogen detections: The three most important factors to realise towards commercialization