POCTRN+ Meeting Brings Together C-THAN Investigators at Technology Showcase

May 2026

The annual Point of Care Technology Research Network (POCTRN+) meeting Research and Innovation Translation Partnerships Conference and Technology Showcase: Point of Care Technologies and Digital Health took place at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, in April. The event brings together academic and clinical collaborators for point-of-care innovation, drawing from Northwestern University, Cornell University, Rice University, Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Massachusetts. Northwestern attendees included Chad Achenbach, MD, MPH, associate director of the Robert J. Havey, MD Institute for Global Health and professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Department of Preventive Medicine, and Sally McFall, PhD, co-director of the Center for Innovation in Global Health Technologies (CIGHT) at the Havey Institute for Global Health. These meetings help to focus member centers and NIH colleagues around shared and updated goals and guide efforts for the coming year. This year, the gathering focused on advancing precision treatment of heart disease, chronic respiratory and sleep diseases, point-of-care screening for cancer prevention, and cross-center synergy opportunities in global health and infectious diseases. Focus topics included needs assessment and diagnostics developed for low-resource settings adaptable to serve healthcare deserts in the U.S. or for low-resource settings across the globe. The six centers within POCTRN+ collaborated to provide a self-assessment on the current funding model, needs assessments, network synergies and the POCTRN+ ten-year vision. 

Chad Achenbach, MD, MPH, and Sally McFall, PhD, from the Havey Institute for Global Health attended the POCTRN+ meeting in Maryland in April.

Immediately following the POCTRN+ annual meeting, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering conference and technology showcase highlighted recent developments in point-of-care technology and the inspiration for future innovation. Several projects and investigators supported by the Center for Innovation in Point-of-Care Technologies for HIV/AIDS and Emerging Infectious Diseases at Northwestern University (C-THAN) were featured at the conference including Charlie Mace, PhD, associate professor of chemistry and biomedical engineering at Tufts University; Alex Trick, PhD, co-founder and CEO of Prompt Diagnostics; Bonolo Mathekga, MSE, co-founder and CTO of Drizzle Health; and Kimberly Luke, vice president of research and development at Intuitive Biosciences. 

In addition to the conference and tech showcase, POCTRN+ center leadership met with individuals leading ASM Health—a new flagship initiative of the American Society for Microbiology—to align efforts in accelerating global innovation in diagnostics for infectious diseases. C-THAN also participated in a session with other POCTRN+ investigators and representatives from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on moving forward point-of-care blood collection and separation technologies with application to many diagnostics. 

NIH’s POCTRN+ aims to build multidisciplinary partnerships to develop technologies with clinical applications. Each of the six centers within POCTRN+ is associated with at least one of the academic entities named above.

Chad Achenbach, ‘02 MD, ‘02 MPH, professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and professor at the Northwestern University School of Engineering, is a member of the Havey Institute for Global Health, Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS), Institute for Public Health and Medicine (IPHAM) and the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. 

Learn more about C-THAN. 

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