Paper Based Sensors and Other Solutions for Cheap Medical Care

At last year’s TEDxBoston conference, renowned Harvard chemist George Whitesides discussed the development of paper based diagnostic sensors. The motivation for the research is the fact that current methods of testing sample fluids for disease markers require expensive, and therefore often distant laboratory equipment. Whitesides proposes that a paper sensor, perhaps with some help from a camera phone, can provide sophisticated diagnostics for remote points of care.