Running Medical Tests on a Compact Disc.

• Position: Brief Article

Research at Ohio State University, Columbus, is paving the way for physicians to conduct blood tests and other diagnostics using a compact disc and a CD player. One day, patients may be able to own a CD that contains sensors and other devices that can analyze drops of their blood, indicates Marc Madou, professor of materials science and engineering. The same CD could provide information on how to run medical tests and how patients can interpret the tests based on their own medical history.

With L. James Lee, professor of chemical engineering, Madou is perfecting the shape of tiny reservoirs and channels on the surface of a CD to allow medical samples and other chemicals to mix while the disc spins. "With this technology, a user would only have to put a drop of blood or urine on a CD, and a computer in the CD player would do the rest of the work. Patients could also have the CD player connect via the Internet to the doctor's office for a medical consultation or for storing the data in a central data bank."

As the CD spins, centrifugal force pushes liquid medical samples from the inner channels out to the edge, where it mixes with tiny pools of chemicals for testing. All types of analytical functions necessary for the test take place at that time. "We found that, if you control the size of the channels and the chambers you micromachine inside the plastic surface of the CD, you can basically build any analytical laboratory on a CD," Madou explains.

The CD can do something that has never been done before--it can merge medical information and diagnostic equipment in one fluidics platform. Once perfected, the disc...