Stanford Home Urine Test

For diabetics, first it was the DIY urine dipstick in 1956, then the personal glucometer for home use in 1981, and now, back to the future, a urine dipstick that not only tests for glucose, but for nine additional chemicals in urine that indicate potential disease states. In a May 11, 2016 article in Lab On A Chip (pp. 2069-2078), two Stanford University electrical engineering graduate students report: “We introduce a novel manifold and companion software for dipstick urinalysis that eliminate many of the aspects that are traditionally plagued by user error: precise sample delivery, accurate readout timing, and controlled lighting conditions. The proposed all-acrylic slipping manifold is reusable, reliable, and low in cost. A simple timing mechanism ensures results are read out at the appropriate time. Results are obtained by capturing videos using a mobile phone and by analyzing them using custom-designed software. We show that the results obtained with the proposed device are as accurate and consistent as a properly executed dip-and-wipe method, the industry gold-standard, suggesting the potential for this strategy to enable confident urinalysis testing in home environments.”   MORE WITH VIDEO

Image Credit: Stanford and GizMag.com