Infrared spectroscopy coupled to cloud-based data management as a tool to diagnose malaria: a pilot study in a malaria-endemic country.

In conclusion, it was demonstrated that ATR-FTIR spectroscopy could be used as an efficient and reliable malaria diagnostic tool and has the potential to be developed for use at point of care under tropical field conditions with spectra able to be analysed via a Cloud-based system, and the diagnostic results returned to the user's mobile telephone or computer. The combination of accessibility to mass screening, high sensitivity and selectivity, low logistics requirements and portability, makes this new approach a potentially outstanding tool in the context of malaria elimination programmes. The next step in the experimental programme now underway is to reduce the sample requirements to fingerprick volumes.