A streamlined POCT solution for rapid infectious disease detection.

Area of Science:

• Biotechnology
• Medical Diagnostics
• Infectious Disease Research

Background:

• Point-of-care testing (POCT) is vital for infectious disease screening, but current systems suffer from long preparation times and complex procedures.
• Challenges include lengthy sample preparation, difficult nucleic acid extraction, and limited real-time data, leading to extended patient waiting periods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce iPonatic, an integrated POCT system designed to overcome the limitations of existing technologies.
• To enable rapid, efficient, and real-time infectious disease diagnostics at the point of care.

Main Methods:

• Development of iPonatic featuring a quantitative dropper, a low-cost cartridge with one-step nucleic acid release, and cloud-based real-time data synchronization.
• Validation of the system for respiratory and sexually transmitted pathogens using quantitative PCR (qPCR) as a benchmark.
• Clinical validation involving 1159 samples to assess diagnostic performance.

Main Results:

• The iPonatic system demonstrated consistent [Formula: see text] values compared to standard qPCR.
• Clinical validation showed an Area Under the Curve (AUC) exceeding 0.98 for all tested targets.
• Achieved high diagnostic accuracy with sensitivity over 95% and specificity of 100%.

Conclusions:

• iPonatic offers a significant advancement in POCT for infectious diseases, delivering results within 30 minutes.
• The system is well-suited for primary healthcare, epidemic response, and resource-limited settings.
• iPonatic enhances diagnostic efficiency, reduces patient wait times, and supports timely public health interventions.