Facility for the rapid prototyping and characterization of point-of-care diagnostic systems

临床实验室例行进行血液检测，以检测疾病、监测治疗方案和筛查。许多现有的血细胞测量和血清检测技术都是基于光学技术，例如流式细胞术、荧光成像和拉曼光谱。这类仪器通常都很昂贵；需要专门的实验室基础设施和技术支持。为了更好地满足低收入国家和加拿大偏远社区的保健需要，有必要研制低成本仪器，可在现场部署，并由受过最少培训的人员操作。这种即时护理设备还可用于急诊室分诊、灾后情况和防治全球感染。

Blood testing is routinely done in clinical labs for the detection of diseases, monitoring treatment regimes and screening. Many existing technologies for blood cell measurements and serum testing are based on optics, for example flow cytometry, fluorescent imaging, and Raman spectroscopy. Typically such instruments are expensive; require dedicated lab infrastructure and technical support. In order to better serve the health care needs of low income countries, and remote communities in Canada there is a need to develop low-cost instruments, which can be deployed in the field and operated by someone with a minimum amount of training. Such point-of-care devices also have applications in per-emergency room triage, post disaster scenarios and in combating global infections.