The environmental footprint of point-of-care diagnostics: quantitative review and a practical eco-design metric
(2026) Frontiers in Lab on a Chip Technologies — Vol. 5 (2026)
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The environmental footprint of point-of-care diagnostics quantitative review and a practical eco-design metric.pdf
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- <jats:p>Single-use biosensors such as lateral flow assays (LFAs) have transformed point-of-care (PoC) diagnostics, yet their environmental footprint is rarely considered during design. As deployment scales globally, this oversight raises pressing sustainability concerns. Although early integration of eco-design principles could reduce environmental burdens, biosensor developers lack practical tools to operationalize sustainability during early-stage development. This practical review proposes a quantitative, multi-scale design methodology that bridges materials selection and system-level performance. We compile environmental indicators for materials commonly used in biosensors and conduct a PRISMA-based review of life-cycle assessments, revealing distinct orders of magnitude in carbon footprint across LFAs, instrumented devices, and PCR-based systems. Building on these findings, we introduce the Environmental Cost of Performance (ECoP), a simplified eco-design metric that links analytical sensitivity to environmental impact and reframes conventional performance-driven technology roadmaps into performance-impact trade-off approaches. This practical review is intended to serve as a quantitative toolbox, enabling scientists to integrate eco-design principles into their development practices and to arbitrate between design options using operational environmental metrics. In doing so, it represents a first step beyond generic sustainability claims, paving the way for broader impact assessments that integrate environmental, economic, and societal dimensions into PoC diagnostic innovation.</jats:p>
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Le Brun, G., Moumneh, R., Adant, I., & Raskin, J.-P. (2026). The environmental footprint of point-of-care diagnostics: quantitative review and a practical eco-design metric. Frontiers in Lab on a Chip Technologies, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/frlct.2026.1738893 (Original work published 2026)