NIHR Global Health Research Group on Digital Diagnostics for African Health Systems
Reliable diagnostic access for febrile and infectious diseases across sub-Saharan Africa remains profoundly limited. This persistent gap often results in missed or delayed diagnoses and inappropriate treatment that may worsen health outcomes, increase the risk of antimicrobial resistance, and ultimately lead to avoidable mortality.
This ongoing study, sponsored by the NIHR, examines the design, real world evaluation, and health system integration of Dragonfly and Lacewing, two portable digital diagnostic platforms developed to support the detection of malaria, childhood febrile illness, and environmental pathogens.
Using a mixed methods approach that combines laboratory refinement, cross sectional surveys, semi structured interviews, focus group discussions, community engagement and involvement, and health system observations, the project advances an iterative process of tool development while preparing thoughtfully for integration within African health systems. The emerging evidence will contribute to strengthened clinical decision support, clearer diagnostic standard operating procedures, and practical frameworks to guide the responsible scale up of digital diagnostics across diverse African contexts.
Dragonfly: This is a portable molecular diagnostic platform designed and developed by ProtonDx to enable rapid, point of care detection of infectious diseases. It integrates simplified nucleic acid extraction, lyophilised isothermal amplification chemistry, and a compact heat block to deliver visual results in under one hour without reliance on complex laboratory infrastructure. Designed for low resource and field settings, Dragonfly supports accurate diagnosis of pathogens such as malaria and emerging viral infections, while remaining adaptable to a broad range of infectious disease applications.
Lacewing: Designed and developed by ProtonDx, this is a handheld, cartridge based molecular diagnostic platform for infectious diseases. It uses isothermal amplification and electrochemical biosensing to detect pathogen DNA or RNA from small clinical samples within minutes. Paired with a smartphone interface, Lacewing delivers rapid results, decision support, and secure digital reporting, enabling point of care testing, surveillance, and real time data integration in both clinical and field settings.
Responsibility: Postdoctoral Research Fellow
