Medicine Researchers at Southampton are collaborating with their colleagues in Electronic and Computer Science (ECS) taking advantage of the latest advances in nanotechnology and micro-devices to deliver new therapies to patients.
For Professor Donna Davies and Dr Judith Holloway, this means working with Professor Hywel Morgan in ECS to develop a point of care micro-impedance cytometer capable of measuring blood and automatically relaying that information to clinicians. Such a device would improve the rate of diagnosis of new illness and the monitoring of ongoing illness.
Judith Holloway says ‘Imagine a patient on chemotherapy treatment, with drug cycles every three weeks. They could do a home blood test with the cytometer, with the results being uploaded to a 24-hour manned ward. The patient could then be advised appropriately to stay at home, come into hospital tomorrow or call an ambulance immediately.
The device would also make doctor-patient interactions more efficient. It could reduce or even eliminate the numerous visits a patient makes to their doctor and to the hospital for diagnosis, to receive a blood test and then discuss its results.