The response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the US has been transformed through new technologies. The speed of progress in combatting this pathogen has outpaced the advances made against perhaps any similar public health threat over any comparable period. The rapid introduction of 3 highly effective vaccines, the development of monoclonal antibody drugs—and most recently, antivirals that are taken orally—have offered a potent armamentarium to reduce the adverse effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Perhaps one of the most enduring technological innovations will be the advent of accurate diagnostic tests that can be used at home to provide a rapid answer about a person’s clinical status.
This ability to connect at-home diagnostic tests with telemedicine and rapid turnaround of definitive laboratory testing will change infectious disease management. These systems will reduce office visits that can risk the spread of disease to others, make rapid assessment and treatment more possible, and expand access to timely, more affordable medical care. As the leadership of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) medical device program stated, “lessons learned from our experiences with COVID-19 could be leveraged to facilitate a large-scale effort for swift, widespread access to accurate and reliable tests for a variety of diseases. They can also inform the response to a future public health emergency.”
