Monitoring diseases in a Care Home setting , as this pandemic has taught us is essential for keeping some of our most vulnerable citizens safe.

The Roboscientific Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) sensing technology has the potential to provide fast, reliable and non-invasive method of monitoring for the presence of diseases.  

Recent press articles have featured the successful trials of Roboscientific’s sensors  detecting  the presence of Covid-19.  The trial demonstrated the potential for Roboscientific’s Coronavirus screening  device to be more accurate than PCR, sampling the air in a room and delivering a negative/positive result automatically just minutes later.

Roboscientific believes its unique sensor arrays will be able to screen for a variety of diseases at the same time, including Covid-19.  This would mean that a 15-30 minute air-sampling session each day in the bedroom of the resident (probably overnight while they are asleep) would ensure that any designated disease would be spotted as soon as it starts to occur in the person. 

Commenting on this new application for the technology, Roboscientific’s CEO, Stan Curtis said “We are very pleased that the trials we have completed with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Durham University have demonstrated the accuracy of disease detection we are able to achieve.  98-100% Sensitivity and Specificity means that we are more accurate than PCR.  In other work, we have also established that as we are reacting to the symptoms created by diseases, even in asymptomatic sufferers, rather than looking for the RNA of the disease.  This partially explains why our sensors are so good at detecting disease – we only see the disease when it is live and in the person.  There is always the risk with PCR that the RNA will be detected if it is present after the disease has run its course.

“We are hopeful that current trials looking to detect influenza and identify the VOC digital fingerprint will be the first step in creating a device which can effectively monitor the condition of people in care situations.  This would enable carers to spot when someone suffers the outbreak of a number of infections or diseases earlier allowing for faster and more effective interventions  - helping to keep Care Home Residents safer and more healthy."