Microfluidics at the crossroad with point-of-care diagnostics

Microfluidic devices have been long advertised as a key candidate to revolutionize point-of-care (POC) diagnostics. Recent advances in this field have addressed some of the most important issues, which limited the deployment of microfluidic devices outside of clinical laboratories. This contribution discusses important technical and economic constraints that microfluidic products must overcome to be adopted by healthcare systems. Two sets of technologies are described which comply with the constraints of the POC environment. As such, these technologies illustrate a possible route for the development of microfluidic devices, which could fulfil the needs of clinicians for disease staging and monitoring.