Early identification of disease severity allows for optimal resource allocation, especially important in critical situations and limited resource areas. Using inexpensive standardized blood tests, such as a complete blood count (CBC) enables a cost effective option which expedites focused clinical interventions and decisions. Furthermore, several of the CBC parameters have found been previous found to indicate both systemic inflammation and disease severity.However, to optimally utilize the CBC test for stratification of disease severity, there would need to be an easy to use Point-of-care (POC) CBC system to enable fast and comprehensive clinical triage. In addition, studies have shown that the introduction of POC devices have improved efficiency in health service delivery in addition to optimized resource allocation leading to cost savings.Despite the benefits, currently CBC tests are primarily performed using large complex instruments in the traditional clinical settings, requiring high laboratory infrastructure and highly trained technical personnel.The system proposed here incorporates innovative engineering to produce a small, fast, inexpensive, robust, easy to use hematology analyzer that works with a microfluidic disposable. This innovative system would allow for a CLIP-waived POC hematological analysis in virtually any setting with minimal user training.
