Like all other industries, the laboratory industry will feel the effects of the digital revolution. In some cases, digital technology will make operations more efficient and cut human errors by eliminating the need for written requisitions, faxes, and manual entry of test results. However, laboratories will be affected in previously unimagined ways too. Futuristic fantasies are rapidly becoming realities and within a few years experts predict patients will be able to perform clinical-grade testing in their homes through their smartphones. At-home, smartphone-based testing will hasten the co-occurring trends of moving testing towards the patient and the move to using only micro-samples of blood, urine, and saliva. Through wirelessly enabled, handheld devices and smartphones with cameras and/or small, plug-in accessories, patients will be able to perform diagnostic testing (is it a viral cause of cold-like symptoms?) and monitor an expanded array of chronic conditions, much as diabetics have monitored their own glucose. “Unimpeded by geographical boundaries, smartphone-linked wearable sensors, pointof- need diagnostic devices, and medical-grade imaging, all built around real-time data streams and supported by automated clinical decision–support tools, will enable care and enhance our understanding of physiological variability,” predicts Eric Topol, M.D., from the Scripps Translational Science Institute, in a […]