Conclusions, challenges, and next steps

Researchers from different areas created clever approaches for using paper-based analytical devices (PADs) in various sample matrices. The PADs have been applied to solve critical analytical problems inside laboratory conditions in the last decade. Collectively, all the attractive features of paper combined with elegant and multidisciplinary strategies have the potential to overcome several challenges in portable and decentralized diagnostics at the point of need, and these significant points were discussed in this book in the previous chapters. Paper as a substrate for the fabrication of analytical devices seems to be mature inside academia. However, some drawbacks for large-scale production, or in-field detection, could be obstacles for the device’s use for everyone. Hence, challenges need to be discussed for a different look at the current position of PADs and create an environment to enhance its characteristics for widespread commercialization and diffusion in industrial and medical fields. The idea of this chapter is to propose a discussion on the direction of three different views: challenges in fluid transport through the paper and the two most used low-cost techniques for in-field applications (colorimetric and electrochemical detections).