Dubai is currently conducting clinical trials to assess whether the new COVID-19 breath test is accurate and will provide the results to the test in under a minute.
The clinical trials are done in joint partnership with Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dubai Health Authority (DHA) and Breathonix Pte Ltd.
Breathonix is a company from the National University of Singapore and has developed the test. The company previously conducted a Singapore-based pilot study that involved 180 patients and achieved a sensitivity of 93% and 95% with the machine learning algorithm.
The test is conducted by an individual blowing into a disposable mouthpiece that is connected to a high-precision breath sampler. The breath is then fed into a mass spectrometer for measurement in which the machine learning software then analyses the profile and generates the result in less than a minute.
The new mode of testing will help determine results more efficiently and can be used in areas with high traffic.
Dr Hussain Al Samt, Director of Pathology and Genetics Department at the DHA said, "In line with the vision of the leadership of the UAE, DHA is keen to foster medical research and innovation. We have collaborated with national and international institutes in the field of research and innovation particularly for COVID-19 to implement path-breaking technologies, which can drastically improve diagnostics and care for COVID-19 patients. This technology is certainly very promising particularly because the speed of diagnosis is just 60 seconds per patient. This kind of rapid diagnosis has the potential to be a game-changer in the global fight against COVID-19."