SPIE - Education Fluorescence Sensing and Imaging: Towards Portable Healthcare SC1186

Advances in medicine and technology are opening a new era of portable healthcare. Together with health apps, wearable/portable health monitoring systems are targeting medical diagnosis or health and wellness. The development of Wearable Health Monitoring Systems (WHMS) has been motivated mainly by increasing healthcare costs and by an aging world population. Fluorescent dyes are frequently used to mark biological samples, and track tissues, cells and individual molecules. In the lab, fluorescence is used to understand physiology and develop new cures to common diseases. In the clinic, fluorescence is used to diagnose health conditions and to evaluate treatments. Translating fluorescence imaging to portable healthcare systems will help us take better care of ourselves. This course will review fundamental properties of fluorescent dyes, tissue absorption and scattering and show how these can be used to track vital signs and provide wellness indicators during a physical activity. Focusing on fluorescence imaging and sensing as a major technique for biomedical and healthcare applications, we will describe the design and optimization of an optical imaging system to specific dye spectra, and tailoring the optical system modules for specific applications such as bench-top microscopes, portable healthcare imaging, and in vivo fluorescence imaging in pre-clinical and clinical studies. We will review examples of portable fluorescence imaging systems in rapid disease diagnosis, and in health monitoring.