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Clean bill of health
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23/05/2008
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As the population ages, the cost of health care is growing rapidly. This has prompted a move from reactive to proactive care. Instead of people being cured of an ailment, the concept is for them to manage their health and avoid falling ill.
In turn, this is driving a decentralisation of health care. Instead of tests being performed by a central laboratory and taking several days, the idea is that your doctor can take a sample, test it on the spot and find the problem almost immediately.
One particular application of this approach is in the identification of influenza viruses. With current concern over the spread of ‘bird flu’, rapid identification of which particular virus is present is important.
Providing this kind of instant analysis requires new devices and the need is being met with the development of micro fluidics technology.
At first glance, it’s not easy to see the link between micro fluidics and electronics. But the technologies are linked in two ways: firstly, the manufacturing techniques are similar; secondly, work is underway to integrate electronics onto micro fluidic devices.
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Author
Graham Pitcher
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