Technologies for Pandemic Response: Trends, Insights and Future Directions

Dear Colleagues,

There is a need for developing technologies that are targeted specifically for the pandemic response. The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has witnessed a continuously evolving trend in technologies, which involves technologies for the diagnosis, monitoring, management and treatment of COVID-19 subjects. A wide range of factors and scenarios, healthcare resources, production capacity, supply chains and distribution, preventive measures including lockdowns, and public awareness need to be considered to arrive at an ideal strategy for combating the pandemic and preventing its spread. There have been striking advances in in vitro diagnostics (IVDs), mobile healthcare technologies and point-of-care testing (POCT), which have significantly aided the effective diagnosis, monitoring and management of COVID-19. Several molecular, rapid antigen and serology tests have been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under emergency use authorization (EUA) and are Conformité Européenne (CE) marked. Additionally, specific tests, such as SARS-CoV-2 neutralization antibody tests and fully quantitative antibody tests, for monitoring the efficacy of vaccines and convalescent plasma, have also been developed. Various smart applications for contact tracing have been beneficial for controlling the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Furthermore, artificial intelligence and machine learning have facilitated the automated detection and classification of COVID-19 based on chest computed tomography scans, and the assessment of COVID-19 severity in patients. Telemedicine and digital healthcare have played a phenomenal role, illustrating their immense utility for the pandemic response. However, there is a stringent need for the extensive performance evaluation and clinical validation of technologies before they enter the market in order to ensure the safety of patients. The current pandemic has shown how hundreds of IVD kits and technologies that have not been stringently clinically validated and are lacking adequate performance data have initially been approved by the FDA under EUA and later recalled from the market. The emerging technologies will pave the way to next-generation healthcare with better health outcomes and prepare us for future pandemics.

The topics of interest for this Special Issue are specified below, although any manuscript related to the theme of the Special Issue but on other topics will also be considered.

Dr. Sandeep K. Vashist
Dr. Subramanian Murugan
Guest Editors

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