The digital medicine ATM: Noninvasive point-of-care diagnostics

Abstract

Rapid developments in sensing and imaging technologies are transforming our ability to detect, diagnose, and manage disease. Given financial pressures on managed health care, there is increasing emphasis on disease prevention and wellness programs have become a feature of many plans. Recent market developments include the merger of pharmacy and health-care organizations, which promises to open new avenues in health maintenance and diagnosis. Herein, we review recent developments in the field and present a vision for how point-of-care providers can play a pivotal role in prodromal diagnostics and wellness programs. Emphasis is placed on recent advances in digital detection technologies which have the potential to accelerate evolution of such models. An additional potential benefit of large-scale community-based screening centers lies in the identification of patients for recruitment into clinical trials, and mechanisms are proposed.