Atlanta Center for Microsystems Engineered Point-of-Care Technologies (ACME POCT)

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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.