Micro fl uidic techniques are becoming widely incorporated into medical diagnostic systems
due to the inherent advantages of miniaturization. In particular, the application of
micro fl uidics to point-of-care testing (POCT) devices and high-throughput screening is
predicted to become increasingly important, and consequently, the interest in micro fl uidic
diagnostics is rapidly growing. The inherent advantages of scaling down include increased
speed, ef fi ciency, a reduction in the demand for sample and reagents, and the potential for
multiplexing and parallelization. Other often cited advantages, yet by no means universally
achievable, include increased portability, lower device costs (through mass production),
and more highly integrated and automated systems leading to powerful yet easy to use
devices. Such potential has led to widespread predictions that such technologies will help
revolutionize health care provision at a particularly timely moment. When faced with the
multiple challenges of increased costs, an aging population, bringing health care to developing
countries, and the need to shift the business models of pharmaceutical companies
away from palliative care to more responsive and personalized therapeutics, it is easy to see
that micro fl uidic diagnostics is well placed to take a centrally important role.