Using Reconfigurable System-On-Chip Technology for the Design of a Point-of-Care HIV Testing Device

Abstract

Presently, there are many types of rapid HIV kits in the market; each kit produces a different image to indicate the status of the patient's HIV testing result. Despite the use of rapid HIV kits in HIV testing that provide fast and accurate testing results with specificity and sensitivity of 99%, these kits cannot be operated alone by the patient. Self testing for HIV is not allowed by law in many countries such as USA, Canada, India, etc. It must be done by qualified health care professionals, which might not be available in poor, low-resource areas. A low-cost and smart electronic device has been developed recently by the author of this paper and his research team to perform HIV testing using one type of the available rapid HIV kits. However, this device was not designed to be low-cost or to be used in low resource settings.In this paper, a reengineering design approach will be addressed to enhance the developed device used for HIV testing to support all these types of the rapid HIV kits that available in the market. The device will be used to produce an electronic low-cost Point-Of-Care (POC) that can be used for HIV testing in low-resource settings. The device will use the Reconfigurable System-On-Chip (RSOC) design approach. The device can perform the testing in less than a second and its cost is estimated to be less than $100.