Emergency COVID-19 supplement for Atlanta Center for Microsystems Engineered Point-of-Care Technoloites (ACME POCT)

医疗点(POC)诊断功能的出现使医生办公室、救护车、家庭、现场或医院能够进行快速和及时的临床评估，并有可能显著影响医疗保健服务的提供。在心脏病学、肺病学/重症监护和血液学中，POC检测扮演着特别重要的角色，因为心脏和肺是最重要的器官之一，需要在危重疾病期间进行实时诊断和快速处理，而血液中的病理变化与危重全身疾病有关。一类显示出POC应用前景的新型医疗技术是微系统工程技术，即从基于微机电系统(MEMS)的传感器、微流体甚至基于智能手机的系统的微芯片启用的设备。基于微芯片的系统以其小尺寸和功耗要求而闻名，提供了对PoC测试至关重要的便携性。此外，微系统将声音和运动转换为电信号的能力使这些技术成为感知肺和心脏动态并因此诊断和监测肺和心脏疾病的理想设备。此外，微系统工程带来了微流体领域，这一领域正在稳步地找到基于血液的诊断的应用，因此也就是血液学的应用。为此，根据NHLBI的U54 POCTRN指南，亚特兰大微系统工程POC技术中心(ACME POCT)的总体目标是帮助和支持来自全国各地开发了基于微系统的POC技术的发明家，这些发明者开发了基于微系统的POC技术，用于心脏、肺、血液和睡眠应用，这些应用超出了概念验证的范围，以确定他们的特定临床需求、进行临床验证和改进他们的技术，目的是加速翻译和临床采用的道路并直接解决其障碍。ACME POCT独特地利用了亚特兰大埃默里大学医院和亚特兰大儿童保健的全国一流临床项目，这是美国最大的儿科医院系统之一，还利用了佐治亚理工学院享誉国际的微系统工程专业知识，其中包括电子和纳米技术研究所(IEN)，以及其他同类医疗设备的原型、创新和试验台设施。ACME POCT Pi‘s独一无二地平衡了中心的工程和临床方面，成员包括Emory和佐治亚理工学院在POC诊断开发和商业化方面拥有专业知识的临床血液学家Wilbur Lam，MD，PhD，Oliver Brand，PhD，著名微系统工程师和佐治亚理工学院IEN负责人Oliver Brand，PhD，以及Emory临床肺病学家和亚特兰大NIH资助的CTSA临床研究主管Greg Martin，医学硕士。重要的是，ACME POCT的领导层在管理促进医疗器械开发的中心方面有着合作的历史和跟踪记录。

The advent of point-of-care (POC) diagnostic capabilities has enabled rapid and timely clinical evaluation in the physician's office, an ambulance, the home, the field, or in the hospital and has the potential to significantly impact health care delivery. In cardiology, pulmonology/critical care, and hematology, POC testing plays an especially significant role as the heart and lungs are among the most vital of organs necessitating real time diagnosis and rapid management during critical illnesses, while pathologic alternations in blood are associated with critical, systemic illness. One class of novel medical technologies that is showing promise for POC applications are microsystems-engineered technologies, that is, microchip-enabled devices ranging from microelectromechanical systems (MEMs)-based sensors, microfluidics, to even smartphone-based systems. Notable for their small size and power requirements, microchip-based systems provide the portability that is vital for POC testing. In addition, the capability of microsystems to convert sound and movement into electrical signals enable these technologies to be ideal devices to sense the dynamics of the lungs and heart and therefore to diagnose and monitor pulmonary and cardiac disorders. Moreover, microsystems engineering has brought forth the field of microfluidics, which is steadily finding applications for blood-based diagnostics, and therefore, hematologic applications. To that end, per the NHLBI's U54 POCTRN guidelines, the overall goal of the Atlanta Center for Microsystems Engineered POC Technologies (ACME POCT) is to assist and enable inventors from across the country who have developed microsystems-based POC technologies for cardiac, pulmonary, hematologic and sleep applications that are beyond proof-of-concept to define their specific clinical needs, conduct clinical validation, and refine their technology, with the objective of accelerating the path to translation and clinical adoption and directly addressing the barriers thereof. The ACME POCT uniquely leverages Atlanta's nationally top-ranked clinical programs at Emory University's hospitals and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, one of the nation's largest pediatric hospital systems, as well the internationally acclaimed microsystems engineering expertise at Georgia Tech, which includes the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology (IEN), and other one-of-a-kind medical device prototyping, innovation, and testbed facilities. The ACME POCT PI's uniquely balance the engineering and clinical sides of the Center and comprise Wilbur Lam, MD, PhD, a clinical hematologist at Emory and Georgia Tech bioengineer with expertise in POC diagnostic development and commercialization, Oliver Brand, PhD, a renowned microsystems engineer and head of Georgia Tech's IEN, and Greg Martin, MD, MSc, a clinical pulmonologist at Emory and head of clinical research in Atlanta's NIH-funded CTSA. Importantly, the leadership of the ACME POCT has a history of collaboration and track record in managing Centers that have fostered medical device development.