Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: Dionísio Dias Aires de Carvalho

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : Dionísio Dias Aires de Carvalho
DATE: 23/01/2025
TIME: 09:00
LOCAL: Laboratório de Inovação Tecnológica em Saúde (LAIS)
TITLE:

Development of low-cost point-of-care biomedical devices to support diagnostics in primary health care: description of a methodology

KEY WORDS:

Biomedical Engineering, Biomedical Devices, Development Process, Development Methodology, Point of Care, Primary Health Care (PHC), Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS), Brazilian Economic and Industrial Health Complex (CEIS)

PAGES: 15
BIG AREA: Engenharias
AREA: Engenharia Biomédica
SUMMARY:

Context

Primary Health Care (PHC) in Brazil is the country's health care coordinator. Therefore, it needs to be strengthened to qualify for health care, which necessarily implies the use of low-cost technologies that can support screening and diagnosis. This is a relevant aspect to improve the matrix regulating access to health services in the country. To improve the diagnostic and screening tools available in primary health care, this doctoral thesis proposal describes a methodology for developing low-cost point-of-care biomedical devices. The device validation process was carried out on four different types of devices: a rapid test for syphilis, rapid test duo for syphilis and HIV, a rapid test for screening patients with osteoporosis, and a rapid test for cancer, the latter of which was developed only as a proof of concept.

Materials and Methods

The development of these devices followed nine action steps based on the requirements established by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. During development, both systems followed the steps of circuit planning, software simulation to verify the components used, cost assessment for acquiring functionalities, contact matrix simulation, development of the embedded system, and planning of the printed circuit board and storage box. However, it will still be necessary to refine this process to include some steps not yet foreseen, at this early stage of elaboration and development of the methodology. The results achieved demonstrate the validity of the methodology under development. Of the devices developed, three have already been validated, through tests with human material, and these have already been published in scientific journals in the area. These were the rapid test for syphilis (available at: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/23/16206), the rapid test for syphilis and HIV (available at https:////doi.org/10.1016/j.compbiomed.2024.108454) and the rapid test for screening patients with osteoporosis (available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-02

3-40104-w). The fourth device, the rapid test for cancer, is still under development, but has already undergone a simplified validation process, which demonstrates the technical feasibility of continuing and evolving the device.

Conclusions

Together, the methodology used to develop the biomedical devices resulted in promising equipment to qualify the screening and/or diagnosis of patients in primary health care in Brazil. Of the four devices developed, three were validated with human material, and these devices have been published in relevant scientific publications and have demonstrated good results for both screening and diagnosis. One of them, although it has not yet been tested with human material, already shows signs that it will be able to correctly classify samples from cancer patients. All devices meet the requirements for implementing patient testing technologies in primary health care. The limitation of this study has been that it has not been possible to validate the rapid cancer test, since it has not been possible to perform tests with human biological material.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Presidente - 2488270 - RICARDO ALEXSANDRO DE MEDEIROS VALENTIM
Interno - 2524053 - ANTONIO LUIZ PEREIRA DE SIQUEIRA CAMPOS
Externo ao Programa - 1510735 - DANILO ALVES PINTO NAGEM - UFRNExterno ao Programa - 3966965 - ERNANO ARRAIS JUNIOR - UFRNExterna ao Programa - 2562782 - KARILANY DANTAS COUTINHO - UFRNExterno à Instituição - ANTONIO HIGOR FREIRE DE MORAIS - IFRN