Market feasibility to explore development of a novel low-cost point-of-care diagnostic platform for diabetic screening in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

糖尿病是一项重大的全球挑战，绝大多数（90%）病例为2型糖尿病，如果及早发现，可通过生活方式干预在很大程度上加以预防/控制。早期发现是长期治疗的关键，可以节省每位患者的费用并延长生命年。现有的便携式诊断技术（尿试纸、指测血糖）不方便/有创、不准确且使用一次性塑料，因此不推荐使用。Glyconics公司试图通过一个即时诊断平台来克服这一挑战，该平台能够快速、低成本、高精度地对患者进行筛查，并使用经临床验证的无创红外反射测量患者的指甲。该技术快速，易于使用，并且有可能显著减少假阳性转诊的数量，为患者节省成本（与金标准问卷相比）。该项目将调查将该技术引入官方发展援助国家的可能性，刚果民主共和国（DRC）正在该项目中进行研究。刚果民主共和国的糖尿病发病率在非洲排名第五（世卫组织，2015年），这是该国公认的问题。市场和临床研究，包括患者测量、临床途径、与患者群体的接触以及卫生经济学评估。这项研究将与布卡武天主教大学和非洲糖尿病大学合作进行。

Diabetes is a major global challenge for which the vast majority (\>90%) of cases have type-2 diabetes that is largely preventable/manageable through lifestyle interventions if caught early. Early detection is key to long-term management of the condition, enabling cost savings per patient and an increase in life-years.Existing portable diagnostic techniques (urine dipstick; fingerstick blood glucose) are inconvenient/invasive, inaccurate & use single-use plastics, and thus not recommended.Glyconics seeks to overcome this challenge using of a point-of-care diagnostics platform enabling rapid, low-cost, high-accuracy Patient screening, using clinically proven non-invasive infrared reflectance measurements of the Patient's fingernail.The technique is quick, accessible and has the potential to significantly reduce the number false-positive referrals, delivering patient cost savings (compared to the gold-standard questionnaires).The project will investigate the possibility of introducing the technology into ODA countries, with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) being researched in this project. DRC has the 5th highest incidence of diabetes in Africa (WHO 2015) and it is a recognised problem within the country.Market and clinical research, including patient measurements, clinical pathways, engagement with patient groups and health economics assessment.The research will be conducted in collaboration with Université Catholique de Bukavu and Diabetes Africa.