Smartphone-based point-of-care cholesterol blood test performance evaluation compared with a clinical diagnostic laboratory method

Managing blood cholesterol levels is important for the treatment and prevention of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity. An easy-to-use, portable cholesterol blood test could accelerate more frequent testing by patients and at-risk populations. We aim to evaluate the performance of smartphone-based point-of-care cholesterol blood tests compared to that of hospital-grade laboratory tests. We used smartphone systems that are already familiar to many people. Because smartphone systems can be carried around everywhere, blood can be measured easily and frequently. We compared the results of cholesterol tests with those of existing clinical diagnostic laboratory methods. We found that smartphone-based point-of-care lipid blood tests were as accurate as hospital-grade laboratory tests (N = 116, R > 0.97, p < 0.001 for all three cholesterol blood tests, i.e., total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein, and triglyceride). Our system could be useful for those who need to manage blood cholesterol levels to motivate them to track and control their behavior.