Mobile health technologies to rapidly test and track infectious diseases

Early-warning sensor systems that can test and track serious infectious diseases - such as major flu epidemics, MRSA and HIV - using mobile phones and the internet are being developed by a major new Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration (IRC) led by UCL. The new £11 million IRC, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (total investment £16 million), will develop mobile health technologies that allow doctors to diagnose and track diseases much earlier than ever before. The IRC will pioneer low cost, easy to use mobile phone-connected diagnostic tests based on advances in nanotechnology for use in GP surgeries, pharmacies, elderly care homes, developing countries and at home. The mobile tests aim to identify diseases with high sensitivity and specificity and give results within minutes from just a pin-prick of blood or a simple swab. Rapidly transmitting results into secure healthcare systems will alert doctors to potentially serious outbreaks with geographically linked information. The IRC brings together scientists, engineers and clinicians from UCL, Imperial College, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Newcastle University, together with NHS stakeholders UCL Partners, Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre, Public Health England and industry partners - OJ-Bio, Microsoft, Cambridge Life Sciences, Mologic, O2 Health, Zurich Instruments, XFAB and Cepheid.