Paper based diagnostics for personalized health care: Emerging technologies and commercial aspects

• Published in: Biosensors & bioelectronics 2017-10, Vol.96, p.246-259
• Main Authors: Mahato, Kuldeep, Srivastava, Ananya, Chandra, Pranjal
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomarker; Biosensing Techniques - economics; Biosensing Techniques - instrumentation; Equipment Design; Humans; Medical diagnosis; Microfluidic Analytical Techniques - economics; Microfluidic Analytical Techniques - instrumentation; Paper based biosensors; Personalized health care; Point of care testing; Point-of-Care Systems - economics; Precision Medicine - economics; Precision Medicine - instrumentation; Real sample
• ISSN: 0956-5663; 1873-4235
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2017.05.001

Personalized health care (PHC) is being appreciated globally to combat clinical complexities underlying various metabolic or infectious disorders including diabetes, cardiovascular, communicable diseases etc. Effective diagnoses majorly depend on initial identification of the causes which are nowadays being practiced in disease-oriented approach, where personal health profile is often overlooked. The adoption of PHC has shown significantly improved diagnoses in various conditions including emergency, ambulatory, and remote area. PHC includes personalized health monitoring (PHM), which is its integral part and may provide valuable information's on various clinical conditions. In PHC, bio-fluids are analyzed using various diagnostic devices including lab based equipment and biosensors. Among all types of biosensing systems, paper based biosensors are commercially attracted due to its portability, easy availability, cheaper manufacturing cost, and transportability. Not only these, various intrinsic properties of paper has facilitated the development of paper based miniaturized sensors, which has recently gained ASSURED (Affordable, Sensitive, Specific, User-friendly, Rapid and Robust, Equipment free, Deliverable to all end-users) status for point of care diagnosis in miniaturized settings. In this review, importance of paper based biosensors and their compatibility for affordable and low cost diagnostics has been elaborated with various examples. Limitations and strategies to overcome the challenges of paper biosensor have also been discussed. We have provided elaborated tables which describe the types, model specifications, sensing mechanisms, target biomarkers, and analytical performance of the paper biosensors with their respective applications in real sample matrices. Different commercial aspects of paper biosensor have also been explained using SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats) analysis. •Paper based POCT devices for personalized healthcare, its limitations, and challenges have been discussed.•Manufacturing technologies and strategies for increasing commercial impact of paper based biosensors have been reviewed.•Properties and available technologies of paper biosensor have been described.•Commercial aspects of paper biosensor have also been shown using SWOT diagram.