Bringing the lab to the patient developing point-of-care diagnostics for resource limited settings : this report is based on a colloquium convened by the American Academy of Microbiology on September 15-16, 2011 in Annecy France
enabling such possibilities as sequencing individual genomes and visualizing individual molecules. Every once in a while, one of these researchers has an 'a-ha' moment: "this discovery could be used to make a great diagnostic test!" Meanwhile, in clinics around the world, local h...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Corporate Authors: | , |
| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
American Society for Microbiology
[2012], 2012
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | |
| Collection: | National Center for Biotechnology Information - Collection details see MPG.ReNa |
| Summary: | enabling such possibilities as sequencing individual genomes and visualizing individual molecules. Every once in a while, one of these researchers has an 'a-ha' moment: "this discovery could be used to make a great diagnostic test!" Meanwhile, in clinics around the world, local health care workers are forced to make treatment decisions with inadequate information. Is this patient's TB drug resistant? Is that child's dehydration due to a parasite, or cholera? Asked what would help them in their jobs, rapid diagnostic tests to answer such questions would be high on local practitioners' wish lists. And both national and international public health officials know that inexpensive, accurate diagnostic tests can make a tremendous difference in the cost and quality of health care services. This report is about how to bring these different communities together. How can we capitalize on researchers' "a-ha" moments? And how do we make sure that researchers know which are the most pressing needs of local practitioners and international public health authorities? The answer is complicated. But there have already been many successes leading to the availability of crucially important diagnostic tests in places where few patients have access to sophisticated microbiological laboratories. Many lessons have been learned, and one of the most important is that even the greatest idea will need a lot of different supporters to make it all the way through this complicated process. Every day in laboratories around the world, microbiologists are studying the intimate interactions between infectious microbes and the human immune system. Some are examining how the immune system tailors its responses to viruses versus bacteria versus parasites. Others are trying to figure out how the pathogen that causes tuberculosis hides itself from the immune system, and why it re-emerges in some people and not others. Still others study patterns and mechanisms of antibiotic resistance. At the same time, week after week, scientists and engineers report the development of new and more capable technologies -- but perhaps the more important goal of this report is to contribute to greater communication and understanding among the many communities that need to work together to reach their common goal of increasing the availability and use of inexpensive, reliable diagnostics wherever they are needed As a result, this report has several audiences: first, it aims to provide guidance and context to researchers interested in developing point-of-care tests for limited resource settings: which tests are most needed and what characteristics do they have to have to succeed? Second, it speaks to research funders: what are the most promising areas of basic research and technology development that would contribute most to creating the transformative diagnostic tests of the future? Finally, the report addresses the larger international community devoted to improving health care in limited resource settings: what could be put in place at the level of the overall system that would ease the development of all kinds of diagnostic tests? The answers to these questions are provided in the form of recommendations, |
|---|---|
| Physical Description: | 1 PDF file (21 pages) illustrations |