Given that HIV, Malaria and TB are the three infectious diseases we need to tackle most, here are a couple of interesting finds:
Daktari is a company that makes an interesting gadget that would provide better access to CD4 counts using a handheld device that’s simple to use. The CD4 count helps decide when a patient should be started on antivirals and subsequently helps determine if the treatment is working – hence, a hand-held device to provide this number would be enormously helpful in the trenches.
Another company just got funding for to work on similar diagnostics for malaria and bovine TB – point-of-care diagnosis for both of these conditions would lead to better outcomes in treatment and with TB would be critical in reducing the spread…hopefully the bovine testing will translate to humans!
I’m sure there are many other potential point-of-care solutions. Their impact on global health issues is obviously huge…an interesting trend to follow.
