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Research students of IIT Kharagpur have introduced a low-cost blood testing device and released it on 13th August 2019.The device requires only a paper strip based kit integrated with a smartphone.
A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur designed a low-cost device for carrying out pathological tests with a small drop of blood. The research project was led by a Professor of Department of Mechanical Engineering, Suman Chakraborty and a team of young researches that worked under him. It was quintessential for the team to keep the device basic and simple to make it accessible to everyone.
In the guidance of Professor Chakraborty, his team used the best technologies and processes to cut down the cost of production of the device. Each test conducted by the team to test the working of the device at different climatic conditions and surroundings cost Re 1. However, the cost would increase a bit after commercialisation of the device. The prime objective of the developers was to reduce the cost as much as they could to make the machine approachable to the common man of India.
A paper strip, a smartphone and one LED light are required to carry out the diagnosis, blood drop is collected on the paper strip, LED is used for imaging the drop and the final analysis can be obtained on the smartphone screens.
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The research was supported by the following agencies :
- Royal Academy of Engineering (UK)
- Department of Electronics&IT
- Indian Council of Medical Research
- IMPRINT
- Ministry of Human Resource Development
- Department of Scientific & Industrial research
According to the researchers they are trying to upgrade the device by enabling it to further conduct other medical tests of body fluids like Urine and Saliva. Now it is the matter of fact to see how the device is priced after it gets commercialised and reaches the market.
