Smartphones as mobile microbiological laboratories

Point-of-care (POC) tests provide an alternative to traditional laboratory-based diagnostics due to reduced turnaround times, portability and no need for highly trained laboratory staff. Smartphones can be integrated into POC platforms because of their multifunctionality, enabled by high-quality digital cameras, computer processors, touchscreen interface and wireless data transfer. It is predicted that by 2020 about 80% of the world population will use smartphones.

This review summarizes the current state of the art regarding smartphones as part of a mobile microbiological laboratory.

Selected peer-reviewed publications on smartphone-based microbiological testing published between January 2015 and August 2019.

Smartphones can be used as instrumental interfaces, dongles, microscopes or test result readers (brightfield, colorimetric and fluorescent measurements), or combined with amplification methods such as loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) tests in portable POC test platforms. Smartphone-based tests offer opportunities for microbiological diagnostics in remote areas and both resource-limited and resource-rich settings. Wireless connectivity may facilitate epidemiological studies and creation of spatiotemporal disease prevalence maps. However, the current analytical performance of many smartphone-based POC tests must be improved and carefully validated in clinical settings by comparison with current diagnostic standards.

Recent developments in smartphone-based POC tests for infectious diseases are promising, as evidenced by results from many proof-of-concept studies. Further progress will foster large-scale implementation of smartphone-based POC as mobile microbiological laboratories in the near future.