Abstract
The SARS-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infectious disease, COVID-19, has spread rapidly, resulting in a global pandemic with significant mortality. The combination of early diagnosis via rapid screening, contact tracing, social distancing and quarantine has helped to control the pandemic. The absence of real time response and diagnosis is a crucial technology shortfall and is a key reason why current contact tracing methods are inadequate to control spread. In contrast, current information technology combined with a new generation of near-real time tests offers consumer-engaged smartphone-based “lab-in-a-phone” internet-of-things (IoT) connected devices that provide increased pandemic monitoring. This review brings together key aspects required to create an entire global diagnostic ecosystem. Cross-disciplinary understanding and integration of both mechanisms and technologies for effective detection, incidence mapping and disease containment in near real-time is summarized. Available measures to monitor and/or sterilize surfaces, next-generation laboratory and smartphone-based diagnostic approaches can be brought together and networked for instant global monitoring that informs Public Health policy. Cloud-based analysis enabling real-time mapping will enable future pandemic control, drive the suppression and elimination of disease spread, saving millions of lives globally. A new paradigm is introduced – scaled and multiple diagnostics for mapping and spreading of a pandemic rather than traditional accumulation of individual measurements. This can do away with the need for ultra-precise and ultra-accurate analysis by taking mass measurements that can relax tolerances and build resilience through networked analytics and informatics, the basis for novel swarm diagnostics. These include addressing ethical standards, local, national and international collaborative engagement, multidisciplinary and analytical measurements and standards, and data handling and storage protocols.
Highlights
A novel respiratory disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) was first reported in Wuhan China, in December 2019 [1]
It focusses on the transmission mechanisms, detection methods, smart point-of care (POC) testing and connected network-based informatics
We review the laboratory and POC possibilities for virus detection
Summary
A novel respiratory disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) was first reported in Wuhan China, in December 2019 [1]. Studies investigating the likely origins of the SARS-CoV-2 are based primarily on nucleic acid homology These show high similarity with existing bat coronaviruses suggestive of a spill-over event from bats to humans and/or through an intermediate animal species [9,10,11]. Whilst existing literature focuses largely on traditional laboratory-based nucleic acid- or antibody-based COVID-19 tests, with various modifications, there has been rapid advance of alternatives These include surface and wearable sensor technologies, and lab-in-a-phone type platforms, that together with network diagnostics such as cloud-based informatics, creates a much-improved global monitoring capability. We draw attention to issues raised by such interconnected technologies including ethics around patient information, privacy rights and confidentiality of test result data and its use locally and globally
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