One of the hottest trends in telemedicine right now is Point-of-Care testing. This buzzword refers to super-fast diagnosis and reporting in the presence of the patient – or at the “point of care.” Some of the big names providing these diagnostic technologies for diabetes, HIV testing, pregnancy testing, etc. include Siemens, Abbot, Roche, Alere. These technologies can free providers from having to deal with samples and lab results. And they save patients time.
With mHealth on the rise, point-of-Care technology is becoming even more interesting. Theranos, founded by Elizabeth Holmes “the next Steve Jobs,” is a simple mobile app now being used by Walgreens. It gives patients and their physicians quick test results that track small changes over time. By monitoring these data, a doctor can detect and prevent diseases earlier than ever.
Abionic is another exciting startup following the footsteps of Theranos in the field of Point-of-Care. They manufacture the abioSCOPE, which uses nanotechnology to diagnose allergies. With nothing more than the abioSCOPE and single drop of the patient’s blood, a provider can quickly diagnose a range of allergies without having to send samples to a lab or wait for results.
Abionic says their new device “offers unprecedented benefit to the patient as relevant allergy results are delivered in a single visit from a single drop of blood. Based on physician’s expertise, the abioSCOPE provides the patient with an explicit report.”
VSee telemedicine technology allows Abionic customers to quickly connect with a specialist to go over the test results.
Abionic is based in Switzerland and has a subsidiary in the USA. We expect to see big things from them in the near future!
