I2I Phase I: A Portable Blood Group Typing Analyzer

出血是创伤患者死亡的第三大原因。需要输血来补充病人流失的血液；然而，在输血之前，医生必须确定患者的血型，以便从相容的献血者那里输血。在高风险的环境中，如创伤环境，每一秒都是至关重要的，因此医生需要快速可靠的方法来监测出血患者。目前，医院依赖于大型批量处理系统，专门用于每个测试或测试子集（例如血型和血液学测试），这在样本采集和结果发布之间造成了很大的延迟。在医生等待这些结果的同时，他们必须使用供应短缺的通用血液制品。为了解决这个问题，微流体学界已经开发了即时检测，但由于人工处理和“肉眼”分析导致的错误，那些已经进入市场的检测并没有被采用。该提案旨在证明一种自主、低成本的血液分析仪的概念，用于为医疗保健专业人员提供实时和可靠的结果。这里描述的解决方案是基于一种先进的液体处理技术，称为数字微流体（DMF），它使用一系列电极来操纵离散的液滴。DMF使血型检测完全自动化，其结果与金标准方法100%一致。结果可以在6分钟内从鞋盒大小的电池供电仪器中获得，可以在护理点操作。这笔I2I第一阶段的拨款将使我们能够探索将消耗性墨盒的成本降低到具有竞争力的水平的选择，作为迈向商业化的一步。我们设想，这个平台将成为医生在护理点寻求快速可靠的血液分析的基本医疗监测设备，帮助他们为加拿大人和世界各地的其他人提供一流的护理。

Hemorrhage is the third leading cause of death among trauma patients. A transfusion is needed to replenish the patient's lost blood; however, prior to transfusion, physicians must determine the patient's blood type to administer blood from a compatible donor. In high stakes environments such as a trauma setting every second is critical and therefore doctors are in need for fast and reliable methods to monitor the hemorrhaging patient. Currently, hospitals rely on large batch processing systems, dedicated to each test or subset of tests (e.g. blood-grouping and hematological tests), which introduce large delays between the sample collection and the results' release. While physicians wait for these results, they must use universal blood products that are in short supply. To address this issue, the microfluidics community has developed point-of-care tests, but those that have made it to market have not been adopted because of errors caused by manual processing and analysis "by eye." This proposal aims to prove the concept of an autonomous, low-cost blood analyzer, used to provide healthcare professionals with access to real time and reliable results. The solution described here is based on an advanced liquid handling technology, called digital microfluidics (DMF), which uses an array of electrodes to manipulate discrete droplets. DMF enables complete automation of blood group testing, with results that are in 100% concordance with the gold standard method. The results are available in 6 minutes from a shoebox sized, battery-powered instrument that can be operated at the point of care. This I2I Phase 1 grant will allow us to explore options to bring the cost of consumable cartridges down to competitive levels, as a step toward commercialization. We envision that this platform will become an essential medical monitoring device for physicians that seek fast and reliable blood analyses at the point of care, helping them provide best-in-class care for Canadians and others around the world.