Card-Swiping For Medical Tests
by andreas on Oct.30, 2008, under general research
Marc Porter and Michael Granger sit next to the test station that uses card-swiping technology to test blood, saliva, urine or other fluids for disease-related substances. Image Courtesy of Eric Dufek, University of Utah
Researchers at the University of Utah have created a sensitive prototype device that could be used to test for up to hundreds of diseases simultaneously using a credit card-swipe machine to scan a card loaded with microscopic body-fluid samples.
The device works uses the principle of giant magnetoresistance, which is also utilized to read data from computer hard drives or portable digital music players.
“Think how fast your PC reads data on a hard drive, and imagine using the same technology to monitor your health,” says Marc Porter, a Utah Science, Technology and Research professor of chemistry, chemical engineering and bioengineering.
“You can envision this as a wellness check in which a patient sample – blood, urine, saliva – is spotted on a sample stick or card, scanned, and then the readout indicates your state of well-being,” says USTAR research scientist Michael Granger, a co-author of the research. “We have a great sensor able to look for many disease markers.”
More information on this research is available here.
