ProtonDx technology has once again shown its resilience, flexibility and portability as part of the Livingstone Revisited Expedition, a historic, multidisciplinary project that aimed to support the transformation of healthcare in some of Zambia’s most isolated communities in late 2024.
In addition to introducing telemedicine, solar lanterns, and training programmes to Zambian healthcare providers, the expedition team successfully demonstrated the suitability of our point-of-care (POC) PCR Dragonfly testing platform for use in low- and middle-income countries.
Already tested in the harsh Arctic climate, the Dragonfly molecular diagnostics platform is a portable, rapid and accurate solution for simultaneously detecting and differentiating multiple pathogens. It boasts exceptional sensitivity and specificity, making it the point-of-care choice for assessing individual pathogen combinations tailored to testing needs.
Arctic roots to Zambian exploration
Our partnership with the expedition began when infectious disease specialist and adventurer Major Scott Pallett introduced Dr Daniel Grace, Medical Director of the Virtual Doctors, to ProtonDx's POC PCR testing kit.
Inspired by the potential impact of this technology, Dr Grace committed to evaluating Dragonfly during the expedition, which involved Virtual Doctors and was backed by the Scientific Exploration Society (SES), a British grant-giving charity dedicated to exploring and conserving the planet.
Major Pallett had already tested the Dragonfly platform under extreme conditions - 600 km north of the Arctic Circle. He found that "Dragonfly delivers reliable results in the world’s harshest conditions." Confident in its robustness, he recommended the kit to his colleague, Dr Grace.
Dragonfly underlines its potential for resource-limited settings
During the expedition, Dr Grace retraced historical locations from Dr David Livingstone’s journeys, focusing on global health issues and access to medical care in Zambia. Over three weeks, the team introduced the Virtual Doctors telemedicine platform to local health clinics and assessed Dragonfly’s effectiveness in resource-limited settings.
The results were promising; the expedition demonstrated that Dragonfly is well-suited for deployment in low- and middle-income countries. Now, expedition team members will contribute to a scientific write-up on Dragonfly, which will be submitted to a medical journal.
Dr Grace commented: “Diagnosing infections in remote environments is inherently challenging and expeditions such as ours have to contend with a lack of advanced diagnostic tools and laboratory support. One particular issue can be mistaking a viral infection for a bacterial infection, which can be difficult in the field where quick and accurate decisions are essential. We also need to be mindful of the need for responsible antimicrobial stewardship and appropriate prescribing within expedition medicine, and point of care testing can help us achieve this.
“We tested ProtonDx's Dragonfly POC diagnostic kits and would recommend their use in remote and challenging conditions. Just as in Arctic conditions, ProtonDx’s highly portable technology can provide rapid and accurate diagnosis of multiple pathogens in the harshest environments.”
The team will continue working with ProtonDx to explore the platform's potential in Zambia and neighbouring countries. Meanwhile, Dr Grace has been named an SES O'Hea Explorer award winner for the ambitious expedition.
Find out more at https://www.protondx.com/
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