Purdue University

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering

Monday, November 19, 2018

9:30-10:20am

MJIS 2001

Current Needs and Challenges in Point of Care Diagnostics

Eddy Odari, PhD

Department of Medical Microbiology

Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT)

Nairobi, Kenya

The need for POCs diagnostics growing, are partnerships growing? Overcoming the barriers

towards the finish line……….

Since its inception, demand for point of care (POC) testing has continued to grow and it is projected that

by 2021 this will be a US $ 36 billion industry. Successful implementation of POC testing has been

realized in disease surveillance, testing in emergency disease management, antimicrobial resistance,

treatment monitoring etc. The developing world and low resource settings remain single most consumers

of these tests due to constant disease outbreaks, geographical challenges including long distance between

the health facilities and the populations and recently the growing number of non-communicable diseases

adding to the pot of communicable diseases. There however still exists a “broken” link along the value

chain that connects ideas in the research lab with the healthcare providers and patients who are in most

need of these innovations. Further, very brilliant ideas continue to remain at the proof of concept stage

and translating innovations to fully market driven products continue to remain elusive in some quarters.

The aim of this talk will therefore be to identify these potential barriers and propose methods of

engagements that would ensure strong partnerships. It is also anticipated that the discussions will renew

a call to action for the development and successful deployment of POC diagnostics in low resource

settings.

Biography: Dr. Eddy O. Odari is a member of faculty of the department of Medical Microbiology of Jomo

Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) based in Nairobi, Kenya. Over the years he

has been engaged in the field of biomedical research focusing on diagnostic tools for low resource

countries. A medical virologist professional, his interests have been in HIV research. Currently he is

engaged in collaborative researches and trainings with different groups in Europe, USA and Japan. All the

collaborations have focused on Biomedical research, Medical engineering and Implementation research.

He also consults for different companies on evaluation and validation of medical diagnostics under

limited logistical conditions

BME Faculty hosts: Jacqueline Linnes and Tamara Kinzer-Ursem