5 Commercialising impedimetric biosensors: from laboratory to field

The demand for reliable and user-friendly medical diagnostic tools that can be used at the point-of-care is well established (Soper et al., 2006; Yager et al., 2008). Point-of-care may refer to use in a clinical environment, field use by a clinician or other operative, or self-use by a patient. Commercial point-of-care diagnostic devices are currently widely available for amperometric and potentiometric electrochemical biosensors, e.g. glucose home blood sugar monitors (amperometric, (Newman and Turner, 2005)), iStat Portable Clinical Analyser (amperometric and potentiometric, see Section 5.3.3). However, at the time of writing, no impedimetric biosensors have made the transition from successful research laboratory trials to mass produced point-of-care diagnostics. In this section, we outline the main considerations associated with the transition of an impedimetric biosensor from research laboratory to widespread use.