JLU-SPH iGEM 2026 · Engagement
From voices in the community to decisions at the bench—and back again.
Science shaped by the people it serves
Respiratory infectious diseases occur frequently and tend to spread rapidly during seasonal transitions, posing a persistent threat to public health. Older adults and children, who are generally more vulnerable, are particularly susceptible. Beyond physical symptoms such as coughing and breathing difficulties, these illnesses also place considerable psychological stress on families. When a family member becomes ill, uncertainty about the causative pathogen often leads to anxiety. Traveling to hospitals can be physically exhausting, while crowded and enclosed clinical environments may increase the risk of cross-infection. For children, fear of testing and prolonged waiting times can further intensify the burden. The combined effects of physical discomfort and emotional distress leave countless families and caregivers exhausted.
Synthetic biology should ultimately serve human well-being, and our project was conceived with this very purpose: to protect the respiratory health of vulnerable populations and alleviate the anxiety faced by families. In response to the rapid global spread of respiratory pathogens and the growing challenges to public health, we focus on the urgent need for rapid and accurate diagnostic technologies in community-based settings such as nursing homes and kindergartens. By applying synthetic biology, our project enables the early detection and differentiation of respiratory pathogens and aims to develop a portable device capable of simultaneously and accurately detecting five respiratory viruses. With multiplex detection in a single test, rapid turnaround, and user-friendly operation, we seek to make respiratory testing more accessible to everyone. Ultimately, we hope to establish a grassroots early-warning network for infectious diseases, strengthen the frontline defense of public health systems, and contribute to the advancement of global health security.
To achieve this goal, we recognize that laboratory science alone is far from sufficient. Over the past year, we have actively engaged with public health experts, physicians specializing in respiratory medicine, infectious diseases, pediatrics, and geriatrics, as well as nursing-home caregivers, kindergarten teachers, parents of pediatric patients, and families of older adults. By listening closely to these diverse stakeholders, we gained valuable insights that shaped the initial concept of our project and guided its subsequent development. Their feedback helped us refine the design of our portable hardware, improve the specificity of multiplex detection, strengthen biosafety considerations for home use, and optimize many other practical details. Through this continuous process of stakeholder engagement, feedback, and iteration, we have worked to ensure that our project genuinely responds to real-world needs and addresses the challenges faced by society.
Who shapes the project
Listen to stakeholders’ voices, and root science in real life
Since project initiation, our team has striven to break away from an isolated laboratory research perspective, ground our work in real‑world application scenarios, and deliver tangible improvements in public health epidemic prevention and control. In response to prevalent challenges in respiratory infectious disease prevention and control, we formulated a systematic stakeholder linkage mechanism, built a two‑way communication channel, and actively listened to and incorporated opinions from all parties. Through in‑depth research, field visits, and practical investigations, we integrated professional scientific research standards, clinical practical demands, social application value, and ethical norms, ensuring outcomes genuinely tailored to real‑world needs.
Our Integrated Human Practices implementation follows the logical framework of Full‑scope Scanning → Core Targeting → Dynamic Collaboration → Reflection and Summary . By adopting a stakeholder model and a communication and collaboration matrix, we have translated broad stakeholder analysis into concrete and actionable communication and cooperation plans.
Full-scope Scanning
Map the people, settings, and systems affected.→ 02Core Targeting
Prioritise needs through evidence and power–interest analysis.→ 03Dynamic Collaboration
Turn stakeholder voices into concrete cooperation.→ 04Reflection and Summary
Review assumptions and reopen the loop when evidence changes.Full-scope scanning
A three-ring map turns a list of audiences into a system of influence, exchange, and responsibility.
Grounded in Freeman’s foundational stakeholder theory and integrating Frederick’s direct/indirect dichotomy with Clarkson’s primary–secondary stakeholder criteria, the stakeholder map serves as a key tool for systematically identifying, classifying, and evaluating project stakeholders. Employing a three-dimensional framework—relevance, directness of impact, and continuity dependence—it organizes stakeholders into three concentric tiers, with connecting lines mapping dynamic interactions and relational flows. This design clearly delineates each party’s interests, engagement patterns, and influence weight vis-à-vis the project, while intuitively visualizing the multi-party collaboration and checks-and-balances within the project ecosystem.
Rooted in Freeman’s stakeholder theory, our map begins with the premise that any individual or group shaping or shaped by the project constitutes a key stakeholder, thereby moving beyond a narrow focus on the core execution team and ensuring no party connected to the portable nucleic acid testing device is overlooked. Incorporating Frederick’s direct–indirect dichotomy, we distinguish those directly engaged in R&D and full-cycle commercialization from indirect stakeholders influencing the project through policy, public opinion, and the social environment, establishing a layered identification framework. We further integrate the survival-dependency principle from Clarkson’s primary–secondary stakeholder model to anchor indispensable partners vital to the project’s continuity. Transcending any single classical theory, we propose a tailored three-dimensional metric for the scenario-based application of portable nucleic acid testing equipment—relevance, directness of impact, and survival dependency—where relevance measures closeness to core business, directness differentiates pathways of value delivery, and survival dependency defines core tiers—and categorize stakeholders into three groups.
1.Core stakeholders: parties directly responsible for device usage, clinical validation, and public health value delivery. Their demands and behaviors determine the product’s core functions, clinical efficacy, and social significance, forming the foundation of the project’s existence and development.
2.Direct stakeholders: entities across the entire R&D, production, distribution, and payment chain, with direct business ties and shared interests with the project. They serve as the lifeline for implementation, directly affecting market penetration, cost structure, and application accessibility of the product.
3.Indirect stakeholders: parties outside core business workflows, yet profoundly shaping the implementation environment through policy, regulation, public opinion, and scenario ecosystem. They critically influence the project’s long-term sustainability and social adaptability.
Medical practitioners uphold benevolence and put patients first. As end users, patients' demands for testing accuracy, operational convenience, and result interpretability directly determine the product's core functional positioning. Their usage experience and feedback on testing effectiveness serve as an inexhaustible driving force for product iteration and the gold standard for diagnostic product success. In addition, patients' test data can be submitted to medical institutions and public health authorities, providing important support for clinical diagnosis, epidemic prevention and control, and public health decision-making.
As the core group for preventive testing, the demand for home-based screening among susceptible populations drives us to continuously pursue device miniaturization and professional-operation-free design, making preventive care accessible to all. This also opens up a broader market for health management for the project.
As a key group in infectious disease prevention and control, close contacts have extreme demands for rapid and batch testing, which spurs us to optimize testing speed and high-throughput capability. This enables our technology to keep pace with real-world application scenarios and enhances the project’s practical value in public health emergency scenarios.
Nursing homes and kindergartens are critical sites for disease prevention and control where vulnerable groups gather, and high-risk scenarios prone to respiratory disease transmission and cluster outbreaks. Their core demands for rapid screening, simple operation and user-friendly sampling define the scenario-oriented adaptation direction of the product. The effectiveness of epidemic prevention in these two settings directly reflects the practical value of the device. Frontline usage feedback drives targeted optimization of the equipment, while screening data can be connected to the public health system to provide key support for regional infectious disease early warning and prevention strategy adjustment, laying a solid foundation for safeguarding public health security at the community level.
As the leading bodies for public health monitoring and prevention and control, public health institutions’ demand for data standardization and interconnection fundamentally regulates the data interface and reporting logic of the device. By organizing large-scale screening campaigns, they not only provide valuable population-level validation for the device, but their official endorsement also directly boosts the credibility and adoption of the project within the public health system.
As the main bodies of professional clinical validation, medical institutions’ pursuit of absolute testing accuracy and clinical relevance acts as a calibrator for continuous performance optimization of the device. In-depth feedback from medical professionals shapes the clinical friendliness of the equipment, serving as a passport for its promotion in medical scenarios.
As the entities that turn product blueprints into reality, co-manufacturers' craftsmanship determines the core quality and cost of the device. Their production capacity acts as a stabilizer in meeting urgent public health needs, and their R&D collaboration with the project ensures product iteration keeps pace with market demands.
Dealers are developers of the market network. The diversified channels they build lay the foundation for the product to reach real society and integrate into daily life. Their sales strategies and after-sales support directly shape brand reputation.
Health insurance payers are the key to unlocking the mainstream market. Their decision on whether to include the device in the medical insurance catalogue directly determines patients' willingness to pay and the product's market penetration depth. The formulation of payment standards and settlement policies fundamentally affects the product's pricing strategy and its promotion speed in medical institutions.
The public is the soil for technological implementation and the sunlight nurturing market demand. Their cognition and trust in home testing form the social environment for the product's sustainable operation. Their genuine health concerns subtly guide market trends. Their emphasis on quality and privacy protection acts as an invisible yardstick, constantly measuring the project's responsibility and sincerity, urging us to pursue excellence in every link.
Schools, communities, and science popularization platforms are the first beacon to raise public awareness. Through in-depth cooperation with educational institutions, our team carries out teaching and science popularization related to the project, translating sophisticated technical principles into vivid classroom experiments and community lectures. This enhances public understanding of the device and sows seeds of rationality and trust. This imperceptible enlightenment is a long-term investment in cultivating fertile soil for the future market, enabling innovative ideas to grow into a prairie fire.
Drug administration and health authorities set clear access thresholds and quality standards for products through medical device registration and clinical validation requirements. Their supervision over the entire production and circulation chain ensures the standardized development of the industry.
Policy makers shape the project’s compliance framework through public health standards, epidemic prevention policies, and innovation support regulations. Industry norms define R&D, production, and market access requirements, ensuring alignment with grassroots health needs. Support for home testing, routine screening, and emergency response expands applications in communities, schools, and elderly care facilities. Overall, these policies enhance the project’s practicality, accessibility, safety, and implementation value.
Trace the connection context
In the application ecosystem of respiratory disease detection technology, Patients, susceptible populations, close contacts, Medical Institutions, nursing homes and kindergartens, and public health agencies form a data-driven collaborative network. Centered on testing data, these six stakeholders create a closed loop of “demand triggering—technological response—data integration—prevention and control.”
As frontline users, Patients, susceptible populations, and close contacts obtain personal health information through testing. Their data can support diagnosis and treatment in Medical Institutions and facilitate risk screening in nursing homes and kindergartens.
Medical Institutions act as both clinical service centers and information hubs. They provide targeted medical services while reporting key epidemic information to public health agencies for regional risk assessment.
Public health agencies integrate data from Medical Institutions, nursing homes, and kindergartens to assess epidemics, track transmission, formulate prevention strategies, and issue early warnings to optimize frontline testing and prevention.
With rapid testing technology, nursing homes and kindergartens can conduct convenient on-site screening and routine health monitoring. Results are shared with medical staff for clinical guidance and emergency response, while abnormal cases are reported to public health agencies. Based on official warnings, these institutions can adjust screening frequency and protective measures, forming a closed loop of self-testing, medical guidance, and public health supervision.
Through data sharing and collaboration, these six stakeholders extend detection technology from individual health management to systematic public health protection, upgrading its value from “point-based testing” to “systematic protection.”
In the project implementation ecosystem, the health insurance payer, co-manufacturer, and dealer form a commercial triangle that promotes the transformation of synthetic biology innovations from laboratory research to real-world application.
The health insurance payer influences the entire chain through pricing and reimbursement policies. The co-manufacturer meets regulatory requirements and controls production costs, while the dealer promotes products according to reimbursement policies and provides market feedback. Distribution and usage data then help the health insurance payer evaluate project value.
As the transformation engine, the co-manufacturer works with the project team to convert designs into mass-produced products, while providing technical and training support to dealers. Production capacity supports market expansion, and dealer feedback guides product and process optimization, creating shared risks and benefits.
The three parties can also cooperate in centralized procurement. The co-manufacturer improves cost-effectiveness, while the dealer ensures supply and service coverage, supporting affordable reimbursement and completing the closed loop from innovation to social accessibility.
The health insurance payer, co-manufacturer, and dealer interact closely with core stakeholders to connect technology translation, scenario application, and value delivery, enabling synthetic biology innovations to enter clinical and public health practice.
The health insurance payer can reduce testing costs for nursing homes, kindergartens, Patients, susceptible populations, and close contacts through reimbursement policies. At the same time, application data and user needs help optimize reimbursement standards. Medical insurance requirements also promote standardized testing in Medical Institutions, while public health needs guide the inclusion of key testing services.
Nursing homes and kindergartens provide practical feedback that helps the co-manufacturer improve product design, usability, and production processes. Feedback from Patients and susceptible populations supports product iteration, while clinical requirements from Medical Institutions guide improvements in portability, efficiency, and operation. Public health agencies further provide R&D direction based on epidemic prevention needs.
The dealer connects products with application scenarios through channel networks, after-sales services, technical support, and training. Feedback from nursing homes, kindergartens, Patients, and Medical Institutions helps optimize distribution and services. Dealers also respond to public health procurement needs, ensuring timely equipment supply while expanding market opportunities.
Through this collaborative network, technological innovation can be translated into practical medical and public health value.
Indirect stakeholders do not directly participate in core applications or data flows, but influence the project through policy guidance, regulation, public cognition, education, and scenario adaptation.
The policy maker and supervision department form the top-level institutional core. Policy makers provide incentives and regulatory direction, while supervision departments conduct technical access review and process oversight. Regulatory feedback further supports continuous policy optimization.
The public influences policy and regulatory decisions through health awareness, usage feedback, and public opinion, while also shaping the social acceptance of the technology.
Educational institutions support the ecosystem through health education, science communication, and talent development, improving public understanding and long-term project capacity.
Together, these stakeholders form a “policy–regulation–scenario–cognition” influence chain that affects technology acceptance, promotion speed, and long-term development.
Indirect and direct stakeholders form a two-way network of “top-level guidance—middle-level execution—grassroots feedback,” jointly supporting technology implementation and value realization.
Direct stakeholders carry out technology application and value delivery, while indirect stakeholders provide policy, regulatory, and cognitive support. Policy incentives affect reimbursement and manufacturing motivation; regulatory requirements influence product approval and compliant promotion; educational activities improve user understanding and acceptance; and public opinion encourages service optimization.
Feedback from direct stakeholders also drives changes among indirect stakeholders. Market barriers reported by manufacturers and dealers can promote policy adjustment, while practical problems from Patients and Medical Institutions can support improvements in regulations and industry standards.
Through the closed loop of “policy guidance—execution implementation—feedback optimization,” top-level design is connected with grassroots practice, strengthening compliance, effectiveness, social acceptance, and development potential.
Indirect and core stakeholders form a multi-directional closed loop of “policy guidance—regulatory standardization—capacity support—demand response,” providing institutional support for clinical application and public health while enabling continuous strategy optimization.
Policy makers and supervision departments provide the institutional foundation. Reimbursement and equipment subsidies can reduce testing costs for nursing homes, kindergartens, Patients, and susceptible populations, while helping Medical Institutions obtain necessary testing equipment.
Supervision departments ensure product safety through technical access and quality control. Feedback from Medical Institutions, nursing homes, and kindergartens can then support policy makers in refining standards and implementation rules.
Educational institutions strengthen public understanding through science communication and incorporate practical clinical and scenario experience into teaching. In turn, the experience of core stakeholders provides useful material for improving educational content.
The public influences policy, regulation, and testing willingness through opinions and demand. Positive experiences in medical services and on-site testing can also expand the social influence of the technology through word of mouth.
Feedback from core stakeholders is an important driver of strategy optimization. Clinical problems can promote improvements in policies and standards, institutional prevention experience can enrich public education, and user needs can guide service upgrades and communication priorities.
Ultimately, these interactions form a closed loop of “technology application—feedback optimization—strategy upgrade—technology implementation,” enabling detection technology to better support clinical diagnosis, eldercare, childcare, and public health prevention while improving overall health protection.
Core targeting
The stakeholder map clearly sorts out the core interest demands, two-way interaction patterns and core influence weights of all participants in relation to the project. It visually presents the complete relational context of diversified collaboration and mutual checks and balances among entities within the project ecosystem, laying a clear analytical foundation for the overall advancement and multi-party collaborative implementation of the project.
Method
On the basis of a comprehensive review via the stakeholder map, to further formulate differentiated communication strategies, efficiently strengthen positive interactions with various stakeholders and avoid collaboration risks, our team adopts the Power-Interest Matrix to divide all stakeholders into strategic priority tiers.
Review the scoring basis here or jump to its Evidence Library record.
Dynamic collaboration
One communication method cannot serve every stakeholder. We matched the depth and frequency of engagement to each group’s needs and influence.
This group's decision-making power is tightly bound to direct vested interests. They pay close attention to technical details, feasibility, and compliance, with clear demands and high risk sensitivity, valuing the project's long-term value and sustainability. In response, our team has established a deep strategic partnership with them to precisely align technological Research and Development with clinical needs and jointly advance the project from laboratory to clinical application.
| Stakeholder | Project‑related Demands Engagement | Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Nursing homes and kindergartens | Accessible, rapid, low‑threshold testing for respiratory infectious diseases. Products shall be adapted to the characteristics of target populations. | Establish sentinel sites in nursing homes and kindergartens, conduct field research, and carry out age‑oriented optimization for the elderly and children. |
| Patients, susceptible populations and close contacts | Accessible home‑based testing services, straightforward operation guidance, and recommendations for risk response. | Build a full‑cycle feedback mechanism through online questionnaires, offline interviews and community surveys to support targeted product iteration and upgrading. |
| Medical institutions | Accurate and reliable test results | Establish a long‑term collaborative mechanism to implement technical verification and collect clinical feedback. |
| Public health agency | Multi‑pathogen surveillance data, risk‑early‑warning information and grassroots prevention‑control network support, for regional public‑health decision‑making. | Discuss technical solutions with CDC and public‑health experts, and define specifications for multi‑pathogen combined‑screening, data interoperability and grassroots‑level usability. |
The elderly and children, as highly susceptible to respiratory infectious diseases and often constrained by frailty, advanced age, or limited mobility, are key vulnerable groups requiring moved-forward prevention lines and nearby support in public health emergencies. They are also central to our development of convenient respiratory disease testing devices. This concern drives us to bring testing as close to them as possible. Establishing sentinel surveillance sites in nursing homes and kindergartens has long been a mature practice worldwide; proactive screening in these most vulnerable settings enables early outbreak detection and respiratory health protection.
The WHO defines public health surveillance as the continuous, systematic collection, analysis, and dissemination of health data. The U.S. CDC further specifies that sentinel surveillance pre-recruits designated institutions—such as schools, childcare centers, hospitals, and universities—to report specific health events, enabling scientific inference of population-level disease trends. This provides a solid theoretical basis for designating nursing homes and kindergartens as key sentinel sites.
Globally, proactive surveillance networks anchored in eldercare and childcare facilities have evolved from pilots into mature, evidence-based systems with replicable experience. In elderly care, the Netherlands' SNIV network—where nurses and geriatricians report healthcare-associated infections and collect etiological specimens weekly—validated the feasibility of systematic, year-round institutional surveillance. The U.S. NHSN Long-term Care Facility Module mandates approximately 15,000 certified nursing homes to report weekly COVID-19, influenza, and RSV cases, forming a nationwide real-time monitoring platform. Europe's HALT project and the UK's VIVALDI program link over a thousand care facilities into research-oriented sentinel networks. Hong Kong, China, requires nursing homes to register and report fever, diarrhea, and other symptoms daily. These practices confirm that nursing homes have become core frontline sentinels globally for healthcare-associated infections, antimicrobial resistance, and respiratory virus outbreaks. Even in resource-limited South Africa, the DATCOV system effectively collects outbreak data from 45 long-term care facilities, further confirming the model's universality.
For young children, the Netherlands' KIzSS network employs a prospective cohort design to continuously track infectious disease symptoms and healthcare-seeking behaviors among daycare children and staff, directly validating childcare facilities as sentinel sites. Across diverse economies and health systems, these practices confirm a core insight: sentinel sites in nursing homes and kindergartens can precisely capture early pathogen transmission signals among the elderly and children, building the first line of public health early warning for vulnerable populations.
This internationally recognized model has also gained clear institutional and legal safeguards in China. Article 28 of the newly revised Law of the People's Republic of China on Emergency Response to Public Health Emergencies formally designates nursing homes and kindergartens as public health surveillance sentinel units, providing strong legal support for a localized, standardized surveillance system for key populations.
Based on this theoretical guidance, global experience, and domestic legal safeguards, our team innovatively established a "dual sentinel" model encompassing nursing homes and kindergartens: our independently developed convenient testing device is deployed simultaneously to both site types, enabling elderly residents and preschool children to complete non-invasive, rapid, convenient pathogen testing in familiar settings without traveling to medical institutions. Through this biosurveillance network combining scientific rigor with humanistic care, the elderly and children are fully integrated into the core protection scope of the public health early warning loop, achieving early detection, identification, warning, and intervention. With sentinel sites as the nexus linking all participants, a closed loop of technology output, implementation, collaborative optimization, and data feedback is formed, making the dual sentinel sites the core carrier for project implementation, validation, and continuous upgrading.
At project initiation, we aligned with international public health needs, confronted the challenge of on-site rapid testing for emerging infectious diseases, conducted systematic community research and interviews, and identified respiratory infectious diseases as a key grassroots public health issue. We precisely captured the real difficulties of elderly and young susceptible populations and, through discussions with public health school and health commission experts, established the R&D direction of "multi-pathogen single-test detection, rapid single-test results, and testing accessible to all."
During solution design and dual sentinel preparation, we grounded our work in the actual conditions of the two settings, completed initial technology and process design, and finalized sentinel construction standards with local health authorities, forming a standardized rapid testing system adapted to nursing homes and kindergartens. After operation began, we collected authentic feedback from institutional managers, frontline medical staff, nursing staff, family members, and users, using operational pain points, adaptation difficulties, and user experience as core bases for iteration. Through continuous practice, we developed and implemented the Empathy Engineering initiative, completing a design upgrade from functionalism to human-centered logic. For nursing home feedback on finger tremors, visual decline, and sampling difficulties, we optimized the closed locking slot, high-contrast large-font interface, and intelligent voice assistance to lower operational barriers. For kindergarten feedback on children's fear and low cooperation, we developed a hydrophilic sponge lollipop-style non-invasive sampler with a gamified guidance process, fundamentally resolving resistance among young children and making Empathy Engineering a key outcome in responding to on-site needs.
In the deepening implementation and long-term operation phase, we centered on dual sentinel construction and effective operation, fully transferring iteratively optimized technical solutions, operational protocols, and emergency procedures to partner units. Community health service center teams undertake operations in nursing homes, while kindergarten medical teams handle kindergarten implementation, strictly adhering to biosafety requirements. In sentinel nursing homes, we focus on "early identification, rapid response, strong coordination," paired with an intelligent monitoring linkage that automatically uploads vital signs and testing data and triggers immediate alerts, shifting institutions from passive response to proactive prevention. In sentinel kindergartens, we implement a child-friendly non-invasive testing process with cartoon guidance and health education, integrating testing smoothly into daily morning checks, effectively blocking virus transmission and enabling the dual sentinels to serve as true frontline positions for grassroots prevention.
Throughout the full cycle, we insist on field feedback-driven optimization. To precisely address implementation bottlenecks in key scenarios, the team conducted a targeted questionnaire survey and interviews with 755 eldercare workers, capturing the most vivid aspirations from their daily work. Based on this feedback, we optimized the project design, directly addressing real-world pain points and advancing implementation.
To address difficulties such as inconvenient sampling positions for the elderly, low cooperation among children, cumbersome procedures, and complex data reporting, we continuously iterated operational guidance, simplified execution processes, and improved system adaptation, turning every frontline suggestion into directions for technical upgrading and process optimization. This ensures that Empathy Engineering remains rooted in real scenarios and serves the effectiveness of the dual sentinel sites. Ultimately, with the dual sentinels as the core support, and through a complete path of continuous practice, feedback, improvement, and enhancement, intelligent rapid testing technology is precisely implemented at the grassroots level, building a professional, efficient, and humanistic public health protection barrier for the elderly and children.
Today, sentinel kindergartens and nursing homes have become frontline outposts for protecting the health of key populations. The testing technology solutions we provided have been implemented by partner institutions, building a safety barrier for the elderly and children while also filling a key gap in regional public health surveillance. Moreover, we have documented the entire process—including the technology transfer workflow of the dual sentinels, stakeholder interaction records, and typical compliance implementation cases—on the iGEM Wiki. This not only presents the compliant pathway of our technology translation but also aims to provide a reusable paradigm for iGEM teams worldwide undertaking similar key-scenario practices, balancing biosafety compliance, practical implementation effectiveness, and multi-party collaboration.
For patients, susceptible populations, and close contacts, the team has established a full-cycle needs feedback mechanism. Through diverse research methods such as online questionnaires, offline interviews, and community surveys, we regularly collect their usage experience and accessibility demands regarding testing technology, and incorporate this feedback into the project's iteration priority list.
Through research, we identified pain points in home rapid testing and have continuously iterated and optimized with user needs at the core.
For core settings such as Medical Institutions and public health agencies, we established a systematic mechanism for aligning clinical and prevention/control needs. Through stratified online questionnaires, in-depth departmental interviews, workflow-embedded shadowing research, and convenient real-time feedback portals, we precisely collected stakeholders' core demands regarding operational convenience, system compatibility, result accuracy, and process integration, learning directly from frontline clinical settings. These feedback items were systematically incorporated into technology iteration and process optimization.
Throughout the project, we maintained two-way alignment between top-level design and grassroots practice. Through in-depth discussions with experts from CDCs and specialists in epidemiology, statistics, laboratory medicine, respiratory medicine, and infectious diseases, we defined the core requirements of on-site rapid testing, multi-pathogen combined screening, data interoperability and sharing, and grassroots usability, and selected a five-target panel comprising influenza, COVID-19, RSV, hMPV, and Streptococcus pneumoniae, forming a technical pathway aligned with national public health strategies and clinical needs. In response to issues in key settings such as nursing homes and kindergartens—including susceptible populations, high clustering risk, cumbersome traditional testing processes, and delayed result feedback—we combined public experimental demonstrations, parallel comparative validation, and expert interpretation to intuitively demonstrate the accuracy and stability of the testing technology, effectively alleviating frontline workers' concerns about precision and environmental suitability, and promoting the technology's shift from a specialized epidemic prevention tool to an inclusive health service, while continuously optimizing through feedback collection.
Meanwhile, in collaboration with professional research institutions, we built a platform for correlation analysis of testing data and immune indicators. Based on the characteristics of immune decline in the elderly and immature immune systems in children, we formulated differentiated monitoring, intervention, and health management plans. We established long-term clinical collaboration mechanisms with respiratory, laboratory, and infectious disease departments of tertiary hospitals, receiving professional support across the entire process of pathogen screening, technology development, and outcome validation. Real-world diagnostic pain points drove technology upgrading, achieving deep integration of research innovation and clinical application.
On this basis, we deployed the rapid testing system to community health service centers, building an integrated prevention and control model of "nearby testing—data reporting—risk early warning—precise intervention." Combined with community grid-based management, this formed a full-chain respiratory infectious disease prevention and control network covering key settings, grassroots communities, and medical institutions, providing solid support for early identification, rapid response, and comprehensive prevention and control.
Given the importance of this group in project implementation, our team aims to fully activate the professional capabilities and resource advantages of all parties, ensure supply chain stability and technology deployment efficiency, and comprehensively collect frontline demand feedback.
| Stakeholder | Project‑related Demands | Engagement Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Co‑manufacturer | Finalize standards for technology transfer, process quality control and cost delivery. | Conduct regular communication, jointly optimize production plans, and promptly tackle technical problems in manufacturing. |
| Dealer | Clarify specifications for product packaging, delivery services, after‑sales support, and regional marketing strategies. | Regularly share market data, user data and application cases, formulate promotion plans collaboratively, and close the feedback loop between production and sales. |
We continuously promote technology optimization and market promotion, and have established a tiered demand collection and rapid response mechanism. For co-manufacturers, we focus on their needs in production processes, quality control, and cost control during technology transfer, and have set up dedicated communication mechanisms to promptly resolve difficulties in transitioning from technical prototypes to products. For dealers, through quarterly market research meetings, we collect terminal market needs regarding product packaging, distribution services, and after-sales support, as well as regional marketing pain points, and jointly formulate solutions.
In addition, we continuously advance information synchronization. We have established a weekly communication mechanism with co-manufacturers to synchronize R&D progress and production needs, clarify product delivery cycles and quality standards, and establish quality traceability and rapid problem response mechanisms in production to ensure product quality and delivery stability during technology transfer. We share market demand data and technical application cases with dealers, jointly formulate promotion strategies by region and scenario, and establish terminal user feedback collection and transmission channels, promptly feeding market usage back to the project team and manufacturers, thus forming a collaborative closed loop of "R&D–production–sales–feedback."
| Stakeholder | Project‑related Demands | Engagement Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Health insurance payer | Focus on clinical value, testing accuracy, cost‑benefit performance and the feasibility of medical‑insurance reimbursement. | Quantify cost‑control value with real‑world data, submit benefit‑effect analysis, connect with access standards and advance medical‑insurance adaptation. |
| Supervision department | Require full‑life‑cycle compliance of R&D, production and application, ethical and industrial‑standard compliance, as well as controllable risks. | Conduct policy research and expert consultation, build a compliance‑feedback channel, follow specifications throughout the whole process and report data transparently |
| Policy‑makers | The technology shall meet public‑health prevention‑and‑control requirements and support large‑scale deployment in key scenarios. | Engage with high‑risk scenarios in advance, take part in policy and standard discussions, and strive for scenario access and policy support. |
Given the power-dominant nature and professionalism-focused interaction needs of low-interest, high-power stakeholders, and to remove policy and scenario barriers to large-scale application and policy adaptation of rapid respiratory disease testing in key settings, the team proactively engaged health insurance payers, policy makers, and supervision departments in professional, efficient, high-frequency communication. Using data as support, compliance as the benchmark, and public health value as the guide, we accurately conveyed technical advantages, application scenarios, and social benefits; actively participated in policy discussions, standard recommendations, and access communication; assisted in improving technical filing, scenario access, and application norms; and sought policy support, regulatory recognition, and payment feasibility—creating a stable environment for rapid deployment, compliant promotion, and large-scale entry into nursing homes, kindergartens, and other key settings, aligning technological innovation with the policy system.
We collaborated deeply with supervision departments and policy makers, conducted extensive desk research on relevant policies and regulations, and established an “R&D–compliance–policy” feedback channel. We regularly consulted experts in bioethics, public health policy, clinical medicine, and regulatory science, promptly reported standard adaptation issues arising during R&D, and shared real-world clinical data to provide practical evidence for policy formulation and regulatory standard optimization, ensuring that the design and application of the technology comply with ethical norms and social value orientations, keeping innovation on a responsible development track.
To advance the deployment of rapid respiratory infectious disease testing technology, we established regular communication channels with health insurance payers. In the early stage, we proactively consulted on policy details, learning about management norms, cost accounting standards, evaluation processes, and feasible implementation pathways for respiratory pathogen testing projects. During exchanges, we continuously collected payers' implementation conditions and practical demands regarding testing products and screening programs. We then integrated the industry information obtained from insurance communication with frontline prevention needs from high-risk gathering settings such as kindergartens and nursing homes, fed it back to the R&D stage, and guided iterative product optimization to suit diverse deployment scenarios.
| Stakeholder | Project‑related Demands | Engagement Strategy |
|---|---|---|
| Educational institutions | Life‑science and public‑health teaching materials adapted for classroom instruction, campus science outreach and practical activities at all education stages. | Cooperate with schools at all levels, deliver popular‑science resources including courses, models and exhibitions, and build implement‑able carriers for campus teaching and practice. |
| The public | Meet diverse science‑popularization demands from different population groups | Carry out segmented, interesting, multi‑channel science communication; customizeoutreach materials for various groups;collect public feedback and continuously optimize the content and form of science‑popularization work. |
To effectively enhance the project's social awareness and science popularization value, we centered on respiratory disease testing technology, integrated the cognitive characteristics and health needs of different populations, and established a tripartite science popularization and education cooperation system of "routine dissemination—differentiated education—interactive feedback," bringing the mysteries of synthetic biology and knowledge of respiratory disease prevention and control out of the laboratory and into the lives and hearts of diverse groups and the public.
We established a routine science popularization and information-sharing mechanism, using our team's official account and various social media platforms as core dissemination channels to continuously output diverse popular science content, regularly publishing both professional and accessible interpretations of cutting-edge technologies, periodic project progress displays, and reports on offline science outreach activities. From project overviews featuring "innovative technology integration" to records of differentiated offline outreach in schools and communities; from engaging popular science on respiratory pathogen testing to the "Her Power—Women Scientists" profile series, we used down-to-earth, warm expression to lower the cognitive barriers of cutting-edge technologies such as synthetic biology and rapid nucleic acid testing. Meanwhile, we proactively engaged educational institutions at all levels, including childcare centers, early education institutions, and primary and secondary schools, incorporating our full set of popular science graphics and activity materials into campus science resource libraries, making project content readily accessible teaching and extended learning materials for teachers and students, sowing seeds of life science and technological innovation among youth, and linking online content dissemination with offline science practice.
On this basis, we closely focused on the characteristics of three major audience groups—high-demand, secondary-demand, and special-demand—deepened differentiated educational cooperation and innovative practice project construction, and upgraded respiratory pathogen testing-related science popularization from fragmented materials to systematic, practical implementation carriers.
For high-demand audiences, we precisely targeted the health pain points of susceptible groups and carried out scenario-based, close-range education in maternal and infant institutions, eldercare facilities, and kindergartens. For pregnant and postpartum women and maternity care workers, we entered confinement centers and prenatal clinics to provide proactive maternal-infant respiratory protection education and vaccine health talks, safeguarding respiratory health from the source. For the elderly and nursing staff, we provided epidemic prevention knowledge and care standards training in nursing homes, addressing weak links in infectious disease prevention in eldercare settings. For preschool children, we held fun handicraft, hygiene practice, and biology enlightenment classes in kindergartens, helping children develop good hygiene habits through immersive game experiences.
For secondary-demand audiences, based on the tiered cognitive characteristics of adolescents, we entered primary, junior high, and senior high schools to build a systematic and diversified campus science popularization matrix. For primary school students, we relied on online cloud classrooms and offline campus exhibitions to conduct routine respiratory science popularization, using child-friendly content for early scientific enlightenment. For junior high students, we carried out innovation design, video creation, and fun board game interactive activities, guiding students to independently explore respiratory testing principles and their applications. For senior high students, we organized knowledge competitions, research career sharing, and simulated experiments to broaden their life science horizons and stimulate innovation and practical abilities.
Focusing on special-demand audiences, we provided adapted, companion-style science popularization services for students with disabilities. For students with intellectual or mental disabilities, we entered special education schools, abandoned traditional didactic methods, and adopted art therapy-based, light, healing-oriented science activities. By integrating health knowledge into handicraft creation and art experiences, we soothed body and mind, gradually conveyed respiratory protection, hygiene habits, and scientific epidemic prevention knowledge, adapted to the perceptual rhythms and receptivity of special students, and achieved gentle, inclusive, and non-discriminatory inclusive science popularization.
With the goal of bringing cutting-edge respiratory disease testing technology into the daily lives of diverse groups, we tailored science popularization formats to different groups' knowledge backgrounds, receptivity habits, and health risks. Balancing professionalism, engagement, and humanistic care, we connected the full-age science popularization chain, making scientific knowledge on respiratory protection and rapid pathogen testing accessible to more people.
To broaden the path of science popularization and educational cooperation, we opened the door to feedback and interaction and established a full-process feedback system. Through questionnaires and on-site interviews, we continuously collected participant opinions and iteratively refined educational programs. We also invited stakeholders such as teachers and students from educational institutions and community residents to deeply participate in the planning and execution of science activities and practice projects, transforming them from "spectators" into "participants" and from "learners" into "disseminators." This two-way interaction allowed the project's popular science value to keep growing and enabled each outreach action to precisely resonate with people.
The marked insertion points connect to the nursing-home and multipathogen study records.
Reflection and summary
The stakeholder map is a living model. New evidence should be able to correct our assumptions.
Collecting stakeholder feedback is by no means the final step of the project process; rather, it marks a new starting point for continuous optimization and iterative improvement. After each round of communication and interaction, the team conducts in-depth review and summary of feedback effectiveness, and dynamically adjusts research approaches and working methods based on actual conditions. We designed questionnaires and, following each stakeholder interaction, simultaneously launched stakeholder model feedback collection, systematically organizing, summarizing, and assessing the aggregated feedback to precisely fill gaps in the original stakeholder relationship map and correct cognitive biases and logical omissions.
We feed differentiated viewpoints that diverge from initial assumptions and unmet core demands back into the project's top-level design and multi-party participation mechanism. Through periodic review and validation and a dynamic closed-loop optimization model, the project effectively overcomes the inherent limitations of one-off static surveys, transforming one-way information collection into a long-term, stable, equal, and two-way deep dialogue.
On this basis, the project has built a flexible, responsive long-term strategic system that ensures the scientific rigor and feasibility of research plans while closely aligning with the real needs, value expectations, and core demands of the served populations, achieving a high degree of unity between research implementation and people-centered orientation.
See how the PACE cycle is documented in the Evidence Library.
Establish the stakeholder‑analysis framework, design research routes and draw the initial stakeholder map for top‑level public‑engagement planning.
Build the prototype of our respiratory‑infectious‑disease rapid‑detection system. Questionnaires and interviews are conducted to collect practical demands from all stakeholders.
All feedback is sorted and compared with original assumptions. We identify cognitive bias and information gaps, then update our stakeholder map.
Diverse perspectives and real‑world demands are fed back into top‑level design. A periodic optimization system transforms one‑off research into long‑term two‑way communication, adapting our research to real‑world public‑health needs.
Where the project began
Responding to the challenge of rapid, on-site detection for emerging and outbreak respiratory disease.
Listening in Changchun
We respond to global public health needs and confront the major challenge of rapid on-site detection for emerging and outbreak infectious diseases. We conducted surveys and interviews in communities in Changchun, identifying respiratory infectious diseases as a key public-health concern and establishing the need for portable, intelligent monitoring. We then carried out targeted research among vulnerable groups such as older adults and young children, visiting sentinel nursing homes and kindergartens in Changchun and learning about the treatment difficulties these populations face when infectious diseases occur. These findings motivated us to explore an intelligent acute respiratory infectious-disease detection platform with rapid in vitro testing and automated analysis. We subsequently gained further insights in meetings with experts from the School of Public Health and the Health Commission, who emphasized the principle of one test for multiple targets, one test for rapid results, and testing accessible to everyone, and an interview with Dean Li Juan further confirmed the feasibility of this direction.
The numerical statements above come from the Topic Origin narrative. The separate questionnaire files are research instruments and do not contain completed response data; we therefore do not infer additional percentages from them.
Introduction (Background & Icebreaker): We focused on the healthcare challenges faced by the public and identified a research objective that addresses both public-health needs and scientific value.
To translate community insights into clear data, we conducted in-depth community interviews while also designing multiple public-health questionnaires for different groups based on a stakeholder model. These questionnaires aimed to understand residents' awareness of common diseases and their access to healthcare services. This demonstrated how listening to the community can guide innovation toward the issues that matter most.
Dialogue & Recording (In-Depth Q&A and Documentation):
This simulated survey collected 385 valid questionnaires. Respondents covered all age groups; those aged 31–50, the main group bearing family caregiving responsibilities, accounted for 45%, while respondents aged 51 and above accounted for 28%.
Survey Results:
1. High Awareness of Respiratory Health Across All Age Groups:
The data show a broad and sustained high level of public concern about respiratory infectious diseases. Whether among younger or older groups, the vast majority of respondents expressed deep concern for their own health and that of their families. This concern is not limited to any particular age group; rather, it transcends generational differences and has become a society-wide consensus. This indicates that rapid and convenient health-monitoring tools are no longer an optional aid, but an essential basic need in modern household health management.
2. Strong Consensus on Older Adults and Young Children as High-Risk Groups:
Respondents showed striking consistency in their understanding of susceptible populations. The public widely and clearly recognizes that children and older adults are at a clear disadvantage when facing respiratory viruses. Respondents generally believe that these two groups require closer and more timely health protection than ordinary adults. This finding directly validates our project's positioning around older adults and young children and shows that it rests on a solid foundation of public awareness.
3. Strong Demand for Portable Testing Devices:
In evaluating the value of portable testing devices, the public showed an exceptionally high level of acceptance. Expectations were especially high among families caring for children or older adults. Respondents believed that such devices could not only address the operational inconvenience of traditional testing methods, but also provide vulnerable populations with a more compassionate form of health protection. This strongly positive feedback suggests that portable testing devices have substantial market potential and broad application prospects in household settings.
Reflection
The survey results clearly demonstrated the public's strong concern about respiratory health and its consensus regarding older adults and young children as high-risk groups, showing that our project's public-health aspirations align with real social needs. Particularly noteworthy was the strong demand for portable testing devices, which validated the forward-looking nature of our technological innovation and closely matched our aspiration to improve human life through synthetic biology.
Feedback :
The findings of this survey established several basic requirements for our project and also provided guidance for our future actions:
1. The development of primary-level public-health products must center on real needs rather than pursuing technological sophistication at the expense of actual use scenarios.
2. Residents have insufficient awareness of key pathogens and gaps in prevention and control knowledge, reminding us to advance technological innovation and health education in parallel.
3. Strong primary-level demand for ease of operation, cost-effective testing, and a closed-loop service model made it clear that the product must balance simplicity, accuracy, and affordability,
4. It must fit the real-world settings of communities, nursing homes, and kindergartens in order to achieve effective implementation from sentinel surveillance to primary-level prevention and control.
Introduction : Our previous survey identified older adults as both a high-risk and high-need population. We wanted to communicate with them more deeply and understand them better, extending the light of care to every individual.
Dialogue & Recording :
During our conversation, the director shared both his frustration and his hopes with us: if the cause of an older resident's ordinary cold cannot be identified in time, it may develop into a respiratory infection affecting an entire floor within a week. Without the ability to rapidly identify the pathogen, staff often have no choice but to impose closed management. Although such measures are taken for safety, they can unintentionally place an additional physical and psychological burden on the residents.
Reflection :
We realized that protecting their health requires not only compassion and patience, but also an urgently needed affordable, rapid, and accurate device. It should be easy enough for nursing-home caregivers to operate proficiently after simple training, while also enabling rapid, evidence-based responses.
Feedback :
We distributed health handbooks and delivered a lecture on infectious-disease prevention at the nursing home, while focusing our project on improving diagnostic technologies for respiratory infectious diseases.
Introduction : We focused on the healthcare challenges faced by vulnerable groups and hoped to understand them face to face so that we could provide better support.
Dialogue & Recording :
In a kindergarten filled with laughter, a teacher shared her concern: children are often unable to clearly describe their discomfort. Once a child develops a fever, the kindergarten often has to notify all parents in the class to take their children home for observation. This not only disrupts the normal routines of many families but can also cause unnecessary panic. If there were a simple and rapid way to distinguish ordinary influenza from more contagious viruses, outbreaks could be effectively contained while disruption to normal life could be minimized.
Reflection :
We recognized the urgent problems that must be addressed in respiratory infectious-disease testing. If there were a method as simple as taking a temperature that could rapidly distinguish ordinary influenza from more contagious viruses, prevention and control measures could function like a precise scalpel—effectively interrupting outbreaks while minimizing disruption to normal life.
Feedback:
These voices—these voices from society's most vulnerable corners—made the shortcomings of current testing technologies clear to us and revealed the weight of this social need. This is the original starting point of our project and the destination to which we have remained committed.
在听到这些柔软的呼声后，我们将目光从温暖的室内投向广阔的世界。我们看到全球化在带来发展与便利的同时，也为呼吸道传染病的传播提供了条件。新发突发的病原体可能在全世界快速传播，对全球公共卫生安全构成持续挑战。在这种背景下，养老院或幼儿园里的一次快速、精准的筛查，其意义远不止于保护当下群体，更是防止疫情在社区悄然蔓延的第一道关口。
因此，基层社区的精准防控与全世界公共卫生安全，通过“快速检测”这一共性需求，紧密地联系在了一起。这促使我们思考，能否研发一种技术平台，能满足养老院、幼儿园对操作简便和速度的极致要求，编织一张从哨点到世界的传染病早期预警网络。这个宏大的愿景，赋予了我们的项目超越技术本身的社会价值与时代使命。
Introduction : After establishing a clear plan and vision for the project, we took our project proposal to Dean Li Juan of the School of Public Health at Jilin University. We held an in-depth discussion about the current status and needs of community respiratory infectious-disease surveillance in order to understand the field's real-world requirements and standards.
Dialogue & Recording :
Professor Li Juan gave our project idea a strong vote of confidence and pointed us in a clear direction: “What you are focusing on is precisely a frontier public-health issue that urgently needs to be addressed. As the first line of defense against epidemics, the limitations of infectious-disease testing technology are indeed one of the core problems. In the face of an outbreak, time is life, and efficiency is safety.”
Dean Li told us, “The biggest bottleneck currently facing testing capacity at ports of entry and at the primary level is how to dramatically shorten the time and simplify the workflow of the laboratory ‘gold standard,’ while preserving accuracy and deploying it to the front line. If ‘sample in, result out’ can be achieved within 30 minutes, the technology will have major practical value.
Reflection: This conversation not only confirmed the practical significance of our topic, but also gave the project team a strong sense of mission and urgency. We subsequently reviewed the literature, and this view was also strongly supported by New England Journal of Medicine and its discussion of high-frequency, lower-sensitivity testing versus low-frequency, higher-sensitivity testing strategies.
Feedback :
After our conversation with Professor Li Juan, we clarified the project's core objective: to create a health-testing solution that is truly “effective and portable” while ensuring “absolute safety.”
Introduction : After completing a series of thorough community studies and expert discussions, the outline of our project and its humanistic core became increasingly clear. We realized that rigorous scientific storytelling requires rationality, but values that truly resonate with people also need an emotional touchpoint. How could we bring together the sighs we heard in nursing homes, the tears we saw in kindergartens, and the inspiration we received from experts into an emotional expression that communicates more powerfully and evokes greater empathy?
Recording ：To this end, we planned and produced a concept video titled “Let Every Breath Be Free and Reassuring.” We are not a professional band, but a group of iGEMers who share the same vision. In a simple rehearsal room, we turned the reflections, realizations, and commitments from our project journey into music through our most sincere voices and melodies.
The video has been published on platforms including Bilibili and YouTube. It is not merely a promotional video for the project, but also an emotional “manifesto” addressed to all stakeholders and the public. It aims to tell everyone that scientific innovation can have warmth, and that real-world technological implementation always begins with deep care for people. This will become an important bridge for interacting with communities, schools, and online audiences and for communicating the ideas behind our project.
Reflection: Through this song, we integrated our roles as “listeners,” “designers,” and “resonators.” After the video was released, the emotional resonance it generated far exceeded our expectations. We received a wide range of comments from the public. A caregiver at a nursing home we had visited wrote when reposting it: “Thank you for singing about our difficulties and our hopes.” The song enabled us to actively build emotional connections and communicate our values to society, and it also helped us move on to more concrete technical design and planning for real-world implementation.
We clearly recognize that this is not merely a technological innovation, but also an exploration of a new public-health service model. It aims to move the point of health protection forward, shifting from passive response to proactive early warning, so that the power of technology becomes a warm safeguard quietly integrated into the daily lives of older adults and children, giving greater peace of mind to those who care about them. We continued reviewing the literature, combining these experiences with our original aspirations to refine the direction of the project.
1. Our first design principle is “users first.” We repeatedly imagined real operating scenarios: how to make the device easy for people in nursing homes to use, how to encourage children in kindergartens to cooperate, and so on. All of these considerations were translated into specific product requirements. We hope that the final product will make users feel convenience and care rather than the burden of cold technology.
2. In selecting our technical pathway, we sought a balance—a golden point among accuracy, speed, and simplicity. Inspired by Nature Biomedical Engineering and other frontier research, we wondered whether we could use signal amplification + precise recognition throughout the entire process, while allowing the system to operate stably at room temperature, eliminating dependence on large precision instruments and continuous energy supplies, and enabling easy deployment in nursing-home activity rooms, kindergarten health rooms, or temporary sampling sites at ports of entry.
3. Going further, we hold an even broader vision: we hope this platform can be “intelligent.” It should not only perform a single testing task, but also conduct preliminary analysis and interpretation of the results. At the same time, it should protect the privacy of those being tested while uploading data in real time, providing public-health authorities with timely and accurate outbreak data and enabling a seamless transition from individual health protection to population-level outbreak early warning.
Our project concept therefore focuses on the core appeal of synthetic biology—redesigning and programming living systems like engineers. Could we combine the precise recognition mechanisms of gene-editing technology with efficient nucleic-acid amplification to build a highly integrated, automated biomolecular detection circuit? With a microfluidic chip serving as the production line of a “miniature factory” and artificial intelligence acting as the “quality inspector,” could we create a truly portable and intelligent testing platform?
This is not only a technological innovation, but also a shift in public-health thinking: from centralized, complex surveillance toward distributed, forward-looking sentinel surveillance.
Expert-guided iteration
After identifying the core problem, we developed an initial technical solution: to build an intelligent testing platform by combining current diagnostic technologies with portable equipment, and to use a mobile app and an AI model to interpret the results. However, we fully understand that, for a responsible scientific project, rigor must run through every stage—from setting objectives and monitoring the process to final implementation. To this end, we launched a series of parallel, interdisciplinary expert consultations and preparatory activities.
At the beginning of the project, to ensure that our research direction could precisely address the major needs of the public health prevention and control system and the real pain points of frontline practice, we adopted a two-track parallel research strategy. First, at the macro level, we spoke with four leading national public health experts to understand the strategic direction; second, we went deep into frontline clinical settings and spoke with more than ten medical experts from three provinces in Northeast China to listen to the voices of direct users and ensure that the design details matched real-world needs.
(1) In-Depth Dialogue with Public Health Experts
Introduction (Background and Icebreaker):
We were honored to speak with four experts from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCs) in different parts of China. As professionals who have long worked on the front line of preventing and controlling emerging and sudden infectious diseases, they helped us understand, from the perspective of national public health security, the core value and key challenges of rapid on-site testing technologies.
Dialogue & Recording (In-Depth Q&A and Documentation):
After reviewing our project design, the four experts first strongly affirmed the direction of our topic: “Against the backdrop of highly mobile global flows of people and goods, key sentinel sites such as nursing homes and kindergartens have become both the front line and vulnerable points of epidemic prevention and control. Respiratory pathogens not only mutate rapidly but can also spread across regions, posing serious challenges to existing testing models. Moving the laboratory ‘gold-standard’ testing capability forward to frontline settings and achieving ‘early detection, early diagnosis, and early isolation’ is an inevitable requirement for strengthening the public health defense line and a major national strategic need.”
They then precisely identified several core features that an ideal point-of-care testing device must have, establishing the “non-negotiable requirements” for our project design:
1. Timeliness Is the Lifeline: the experts emphasized, “An ideal test must complete the entire process from ‘sample in’ to ‘result out’ within 30 minutes, securing a critical window for rapid control measures.”
2. Multiplex Testing Is Essential: the experts stated, “Testing for a single pathogen has limited practical value. In clinical practice, different pathogens can cause similar symptoms, yet the prevention and control strategies differ greatly. The device must be able to simultaneously distinguish common pathogens such as influenza, COVID-19, and RSV in order to achieve truly precise prevention and control and effective triage.”
3. Data Must Be Able to Speak: the experts specifically noted, “Testing devices cannot become information islands. Their result data should be able to connect conveniently and securely to existing infectious-disease surveillance networks, providing data support for real-time alerts, epidemic-trend analysis, and prevention-and-control decisions. Only then can individual testing be transformed into a public health product.”
Reflection (Team Reflection):
This dialogue gave us strong confidence and a clear sense of mission. From the perspective of national disease-control strategy, the four experts confirmed both the urgency and the validity of our topic and outlined the strategic vision our project ultimately needs to achieve: not merely a portable device, but a dynamic sensing node integrated into a smart public health system.
Feedback (Action Feedback and Iteration):
In response to the experts’ recommendations, we incorporated improvements in turnaround time, multiplex detection, and analysis of testing data into the preliminary product design. Under their guidance, we also prepared the Community Collaborative Emergency Response Guide, hoping to better contribute back to the iGEM community.
Epidemiology and statistics
Introduction (Background and Icebreaker):
After completing our initial social research, the data pointed to a very clear conclusion—sentinel nursing homes and kindergartens are the “chokepoints” through which respiratory infectious diseases enter. However, when we truly began preparing the project design, we encountered an invisible barrier: there are hundreds of respiratory pathogens. We knew we wanted to develop “respiratory testing,” but which pathogens would actually address the pain points of port-of-entry epidemic prevention? With this uncertainty, we approached an expert deeply familiar with epidemiological statistics—Vice Dean Changgui Kou.
Dialogue & Recording (In-Depth Q&A and Documentation):
iGEM Team: Director Kou, our research shows that ports of entry urgently need respiratory testing methods, but there are too many pathogens. From the perspective of public health statistics, which viruses should we test for?
Prof. Kou: “The confusion you have now is exactly the problem epidemiology is meant to solve—setting priorities. Port-of-entry epidemic prevention must consider disease burden and the value of differential diagnosis. I recommend that you build a ‘3+2’ testing model, including both bacteria and viruses
iGEM Team: Why bacteria? We had always assumed the main focus should be viruses.
Prof. Kou: “That is the difference between clinical thinking and ordinary thinking. Rapid sentinel testing is not only for ‘diagnosis,’ but also for ‘triage.’
In clinical practice, viral-bacterial coinfections are very common, but the treatment logic is completely different: bacterial infections require antibiotics, while viral infections do not. If your test kit can distinguish Streptococcus pneumoniae, it can directly tell a doctor whether medication is needed. That is more valuable than simply telling a patient ‘what disease you have.’”
Reflection (Team Reflection):
This dialogue was the most important piece of “navigation” since the project began.
1. A Leap in Understanding: We had originally planned only to use questionnaires to identify several common viruses. Vice Dean Kou helped us make a more professional selection from an epidemiological perspective.
2. The Strategic Value of Bacterial Detection: Introducing bacterial testing aligns with the deeper public health significance of the “rational use of antibiotics.”
3. Challenge in the Technical Pathway: We faced a new problem—we needed to detect RNA viruses (influenza/COVID-19) and DNA bacteria (Streptococcus pneumoniae) within a single system. This meant that we needed to find a foundational technology compatible with dual DNA/RNA detection.
Feedback (Action Feedback and Iteration):
This interview directly determined the starting point of the project design stage:
1. Target Selection: We formally established a five-pathogen detection panel consisting of “human metapneumovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Bordetella pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae.” This became the foundation for all of our subsequent work.
2. Launch of the Literature Review: For these five specific pathogens, we began reviewing a large body of literature and searching for conserved genomic sequences in preparation for subsequent primer design.
3. Direction of Technology Selection: Because the system needed to process both DNA and RNA and be used on site, we began focusing on detection technologies with the potential to simultaneously capture these five pathogens.
(2) Practical Dialogue with Frontline Healthcare Workers: Translating Strategic Needs into User-Centered Design Language
Considering the significant influence of climatic factors on the spread of respiratory infectious diseases, as well as the implementation needs of the sentinel scenarios identified earlier, we initially focused our strategic dialogue on the front line of regional prevention and control. To this end, we conducted a series of in-depth interviews with senior medical experts from multiple provinces in Northeast China. Working on the clinical front line, they have deep insight into the epidemiological patterns of respiratory diseases in cold regions. Through extensive exchanges with them, we closely integrated macro-level public health strategy with regional practical needs, thereby establishing the most pragmatic and precise strategic value and application paradigm for the project.
Introduction (Background and Icebreaker):
Guided by the strategic direction we obtained at the macro level, we moved deeper into clinical application scenarios and visited Director Wang, who works closely with frontline clinical practice. He handles a wide range of testing samples throughout the year and has a deep understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of existing testing approaches. This conversation translated the broader strategy into concrete and actionable design requirements.
Dialogue & Recording (In-Depth Q&A and Documentation):
After hearing our idea, he pointed out another, less obvious problem: “In clinical practice, viral loads fluctuate enormously. During a flu outbreak, a single sneeze may contain hundreds of millions of viral copies, but for RSV patients in the incubation or recovery phase—especially children with nonstandard sampling—the viral load may be as low as only a few hundred copies per milliliter. Your current single-stage CRISPR signal may be specific, but without an amplification technology, how are you going to capture signals this weak?”
Reflection (Team Reflection): His comments made us recognize the gaps in the current project and broadened our perspective. We shifted our focus toward identifying an appropriate amplification technology while also selecting a suitable CRISPR technology.
Feedback (Action Feedback and Iteration):
After speaking with Director Wang, we continued reviewing the literature and improving the project:
1. Identify a more precise detection technology and determine the use of CRISPR-Cas12a;
2. Conduct in-depth discussions with hospital physicians to clarify frontline clinical testing needs.
Infectious disease and respiratory care
Introduction (Background and Icebreaker):
To make the device more practical, we visited frontline clinicians. They provided valuable feedback from the perspective of actual work, and their comments closely echoed and further refined the requirements raised by public health experts.
Dialogue & Recording (In-Depth Q&A and Documentation):
“An on-site testing device must be essentially ‘foolproof,’ with as few steps as possible and intuitive result interpretation—for example, a traffic-light display. At the same time, being able to test multiple pathogens in a single run is highly significant for differential diagnosis and precise prevention and control.” One staff member added: “The device must be rugged and portable, have long battery life, and be able to operate at different ambient temperatures.”
Reflection (Team Reflection):
This interview validated the direction we were taking and established clear design standards for our testing system. As a result, when selecting the control system later on, we treated “timeliness” and “portability” as our primary criteria.
Feedback (Action Feedback and Iteration):
These frontline “user voices” made our design priorities clearer: we defined “cascade amplification,” “user-friendliness,” and “multiplex detection capability” as core design criteria. These directly shaped our later pursuit of “integration” in microfluidic-chip design, “minimalism and intuitiveness” in the app interface, and “ruggedness and durability” in device power consumption and structural design.
Geriatric care
Introduction (Background and Icebreaker):
Focusing on our core application scenario—nursing homes—we brought the first prototype of our testing device to visit Director Zhang from the geriatrics department of a tertiary hospital. From the frontline perspective of geriatric medicine, we hoped to evaluate the actual usability of this real-time multi-virus testing device for older adults and nursing-home caregivers.
Dialogue & Recording (In-Depth Q&A and Documentation):
After carefully examining our prototype and sampling components, Director Zhang immediately identified two major risks: “First, the respiratory mucosa of older adults is extremely fragile and is often accompanied by mucosal dryness. Traditional rigid, long swabs can easily scratch the nasopharyngeal cavity and cause bleeding, which may then trigger severe coughing or even secondary infection. Second, the text on your screen is too small and the controls are too delicate. Many older adults have presbyopia, cataracts, or hand tremors caused by conditions such as Parkinson’s disease. If they cannot clearly see the results or hold the device steadily, they may feel intense fear of and resistance to this kind of high-tech product.”
Reflection (Team Reflection):
These comments were a wake-up call. We had assumed that a product capable of accurately detecting multiple viruses in one box would automatically be a good product, but we had overlooked the most direct physical and visual interactions between the device and vulnerable users. We needed to address the barriers created by age-related sensory decline and physiological vulnerability.
Feedback (Action Feedback and Iteration):
Director Zhang’s feedback directly prompted us to return our attention to the physical user experience. We carried out an in-depth age-friendly redesign of the device appearance and sampling components and improved the designs of the app and throat swab.
Target sample-to-result time
Several respiratory pathogens in one workflow
Guided operation for community users
Gentler sampling, high contrast, and voice support
Privacy-aware interpretation and potential reporting
Editorial transparency: the supplied drafts record different target panels at different project stages. The Project Design draft specifies hMPV, RSV, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Bordetella pertussis, and Haemophilus influenzae; another stakeholder draft lists influenza, COVID-19, RSV, hMPV, and S. pneumoniae. We therefore present the panel as an evolving design decision and do not imply that a final locked panel has been clinically validated.
Validating the pathway
At the beginning of this study’s design, we first considered the particular characteristics of the testing scenarios. Respiratory pathogens such as RSV often infect infants and young children, older adults, and people with weakened immune function. In settings such as nursing homes, childcare institutions, and remote mountainous areas, there are often shortages of professional testing personnel and limited testing equipment. For these scenarios, the testing technology must combine high sensitivity with simple operation, rapid reactions, compact equipment, and on-site usability. Overall, we hoped to establish a nucleic-acid testing system better suited to primary-level and on-site applications.
Background:
We initially considered mature testing technologies such as PCR/RT-qPCR, but found that they impose relatively high requirements on instrumentation, temperature control, and the experimental environment, making them difficult to adapt to portable respiratory-pathogen testing scenarios. To address this issue, we held an in-depth discussion with Professor X. Chris Le of the University of Alberta in Canada.
Stakeholder Insight:
Professor X. Chris Le recommended that we prioritize a one-pot RPA-CRISPR/Cas12a method, because it combines the rapid isothermal amplification of RPA with the specific recognition and fluorescence output of Cas12a, making it more suitable for rapid, simple, sensitive, and portable testing.
Reflection:
This interview made us realize that technology selection cannot be based solely on comparing detection performance; it must also consider how well a technology matches real-world usage scenarios. We also came to understand that the key challenge of a portable testing device is not merely “whether it can detect,” but “whether it can detect reliably with low equipment dependence and a low operational barrier.”
Feedback / Iteration (Action Feedback and Iteration):
We changed our detection approach from one primarily oriented toward PCR to a one-pot RPA-CRISPR/Cas12a method, making it more suitable for portable, rapid testing with low equipment dependence. Next, we will optimize both the reaction system and device structure, including primer and crRNA design, fluorescence readout, reaction stability, and the feasibility of multiplex detection, and we will continue refining the approach based on subsequent experimental results.
Background:
During wet-lab validation of the RPA-CRISPR/Cas12a system, we found that fluorescence signals were insufficiently stable in low-copy samples during parallel multi-pathogen detection, suggesting that the existing primers or target sequences may still require optimization. Because we lacked a more standardized primer-screening mechanism, we discussed the issue with Professor Quanshun Li of Jilin University in the hope of reducing problems in primer and crRNA design during wet-lab experiments.
Stakeholder Insight:
(1) Problems of this kind are better suited to the introduction of machine learning, especially sequence language models. Their value lies not only in improving screening efficiency, but more importantly in characterizing sequence-context features and potential patterns at a higher-dimensional level, thereby providing complementary judgment on specificity issues in complex backgrounds.
(2) In machine-learning models, the quality of the training set often determines the final performance. When constructing the training set, attention should be paid to the following three points:
1. Positive samples must be sufficiently diverse internally and cannot cover only a few fixed sequences; otherwise, the model’s ability to generalize across mutation backgrounds will be inadequate.
2. Negative samples and background samples must be selected purposefully, especially by covering closely related sequences that are most likely to be confused with the target viruses, rather than simply filling the dataset with unrelated sequences.
3. Data splitting must be strictly controlled to prevent highly similar samples from appearing across the training, validation, and test sets; otherwise, model performance will be overestimated.
Reflection
After speaking with the professor, we clarified the core optimization logic of sequence screening, moved beyond traditional sequence-alignment thinking, and recognized that machine-learning models are key to solving the challenge of multi-virus screening, while scientifically constructing the training set is a prerequisite for the model to function effectively.
Feedback / Iteration
Based on this recommendation and our literature review, we decided to use DNABERT-6 as the base model and positioned it as a front-end sequence-semantic screening module. For six target viruses and their closely related backgrounds, we rebuilt the candidate sequence pool and conducted unified PAM-site scanning, candidate-window extraction, and embedding representation. This moved the starting point of testing-system optimization forward, from “discovering problems after experiments” to “predicting and screening better targets before experiments.”
Introduction (Background and Icebreaker):
After screening the candidate sequences, we were still uncertain whether these sequences would truly be compatible with the subsequent Cas12a system. Between sequence screening and experimental validation, further analysis was still needed. To address this, we held an in-depth discussion with Professor Xing-Fang Li of the University of Alberta in Canada.
Stakeholder Insight:
The professor recommended performing molecular-level binding analyses. Although candidate sites had already been screened, whether these sequences could ultimately function stably in the Cas12a system would still depend on their recognition and binding behavior with the Cas12a/crRNA complex. Therefore, molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations could be used to conduct preliminary evaluations of different candidate target sequences from the perspectives of structural stability, binding energy, and thermodynamic performance, before selecting the options most worthy of entering wet-lab validation. This step would be valuable for improving the efficiency of subsequent validation.
Reflection:
This discussion helped us realize that crRNA design cannot rely solely on sequence complementarity; structural compatibility and potential activity within the Cas12a system must also be considered. The stability of the RNP complex affects target recognition, activation of Cas12a collateral cleavage activity, and subsequent fluorescence-signal output. Molecular simulation can therefore serve as an important intermediate step connecting “sequence screening” with “wet-lab validation.”
Feedback:
1. Following the professor’s recommendation, we introduced molecular dynamics simulation as a validation step after sequence-semantic screening to prioritize candidate solutions more likely to form stable RNP complexes. At the same time, we screened for primers with high binding efficiency. The wet-lab team will prioritize validation of crRNA-Cas12a combinations that show higher binding stability and better thermodynamic performance in simulation, thereby reducing low-efficiency experiments.
2. After the wet-lab team conducted experiments using primers with good binding efficiency, we obtained corresponding experimental data. We compared these data with the molecular-dynamics simulation results and added them to DNABERT for calibration. Due to objective constraints, we did not conduct further experiments with the optimized primers, but the model can continue to be optimized and iterated by continuously incorporating experimental data, thereby contributing back to the iGEM community.
Introduction (Background and Icebreaker):
After completing the molecular-dynamics simulations, we considered that we should evaluate not only each candidate sequence on its own, but also its performance once placed within the complete RPA/CRISPR-Cas12a reaction system. We hoped to complete the entire process from “screening sequences” to “simulating the complete reaction system.” To realize this idea, we brought our model to Professor Weiwei Cui of the School of Public Health at Jilin University for advice.
Stakeholder Insight:
The professor affirmed our idea and recommended performing RPA-CRISPR/Cas12a kinetic simulation to help interpret wet-lab results and optimize conditions in reverse.
Reflection:
This discussion made us realize that we also needed to evaluate actual performance within the complete RPA-CRISPR/Cas12a reaction system. Full-system kinetic simulation can help connect sequence screening, Cas12a recognition, and fluorescence-signal output, allowing us to better understand wet-lab results and providing a basis for subsequent optimization of reaction conditions.
Feedback:
After adopting this recommendation, we expanded the overall technical pathway into a closed-loop process of “biological semantic screening—molecular-dynamics simulation evaluation—full-reaction-system kinetic simulation.” By combining the Cas12a binding rate constants obtained from the earlier molecular-dynamics simulations with parameters from the previous wet-lab system, we generated kinetic curves for the full wet-lab process, supplemented and optimized the ODE model, and simultaneously used the model to optimize the wet-lab reaction system and improve detection sensitivity. In this way, system simulation moved from a conceptual demonstration toward a quantitative analytical tool that can provide feedback on experimental conditions.
Design loopBiological semantic screening → molecular-dynamics evaluation → full-reaction kinetic simulation → wet-lab evidence → updated screening criteria.
Reserved for the next integration
A deliberate bridge between the validated design and its future use in real settings.
Instrument-team handoff
The implementation pathway is still being completed with the Instrument team. We have reserved this full chapter now so that the final iHP narrative will remain continuous: stakeholder needs lead to design choices, design choices lead to field implementation, and implementation returns new evidence to the people involved.
Content integration in progress
Responsible by design
Faced with the threat of emerging and sudden respiratory infectious diseases, we looked beyond cold laboratory data toward nursing homes on the edges of cities and lively kindergartens. To build a warm bridge between these vulnerable groups—the very old and the very young—and cutting-edge high-throughput technologies, we established the “CARES Shield” ethical evaluation framework to ensure that every step of our innovation proceeds responsibly.
This framework rigorously evaluates the ethical soundness of the project across five core dimensions throughout research and development, testing, and science communication, ensuring that protecting life always remains the highest principle guiding our technology.
Care ethics emphasizes that moral decision-making in healthcare must be grounded in sensitivity to the needs of others and in relationship-building. Medical interventions and health communication must aim to minimize the physical and psychological stress placed on their audiences and must not allow cold technology to add to the burden borne by vulnerable groups.
1 Physical and Psychological “Fear-Reduction” Design: Rather than designing the product behind closed doors, we fully considered children’s natural resistance to medical devices. We therefore created a comic-style instruction manual specifically for the device. Through vivid, child-friendly visual language and story-based guidance, we minimized young children’s fear when facing the testing device, reflecting thoughtful design and care in the product.
2 Age-Friendly Reconstruction of the Interactive Interface: In response to age-related declines in vision and hearing, we upgraded the interface to a high-contrast, large-text mode and added a “warm voice announcement” function, allowing technology to convey care.
3 Compassionate Community Science Communication: In health education for primary-level communities, we deliberately reduced the emphasis on complex and difficult explanations of synthetic-biology principles. Drawing on our diverse Human Practices activities, we firmly focused our outreach on everyday respiratory-health protection. We visited early-childhood education institutions, postpartum care centers, primary and secondary schools, nursing homes, and other venues, reaching people across all age groups. While popularizing scientific knowledge, we also effectively reduced the anxiety caused by information overload, genuinely making science communication more compassionate and approachable.
The Belmont Report and the Declaration of Helsinki clearly state that special protective measures and proxy-consent mechanisms must be adopted for groups with limited autonomy. When dealing with very old adults or children whose cognitive capacity is not yet fully developed, the project must use special protection mechanisms and proxy-consent procedures to safeguard their data sovereignty and right to informed consent.
Standardized and Rigorous Informed-Consent Process: During all social-practice and device-testing activities, we strictly followed medical and research ethics standards. Referring to the ethical-review standards of formal hospitals, the team carefully drafted detailed informed-consent forms and fully explained them to participants and their guardians on site before obtaining signed confirmation, thereby protecting the audience’s right to know and right to choose.
Strict Data Localization and Privacy Protection: Our project’s supporting software enables real-time data upload. In data processing, we place great importance on national data security and patient privacy. The system strictly complies with relevant regulations, ensuring that testing data are stored only on domestic local servers and preventing the risk of data leakage.
World Health Organization (WHO) public health ethics guidance emphasizes that, when infectious-disease surveillance tools are promoted, their technical limitations must be disclosed transparently to the public to prevent a false sense of public health security. The team must honestly define the boundaries and limits of the technology and use the most rigorous validation standards to ensure data integrity, resolutely avoiding secondary public health harms caused by false reassurance.
1 Authoritative Certification and Patent Protection: Through continuous optimization and rigorous testing by the team, our device has successfully applied for multiple patents and has also passed the relevant medical-device approval processes. This series of official recognitions not only demonstrates the reliability and innovation of our technology, but also provides strong support for its transition toward real-world application.
2 Future Planning for Translation of Project Outcomes: As an important future step in translating the project’s outcomes, we plan to transfer the complete set of core assets to a third-party in vitro diagnostics company operating to GMP standards for industrial-grade blinded validation. We hope to further verify device stability under operation by independent professionals and responsibly advance a closed loop linking industry, academia, and research.
3 Upholding the Bottom Line of Clinical Ethics: We will add a detailed statement to the product manual clearly defining the device as an auxiliary tool for primary-level public health surveillance, early screening, and early warning, ensuring the most transparent explanation of its application boundaries to users.
The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has noted that public health interventions should be designed from the outset to reduce health inequalities. The benefits of technology should not be blocked by economic circumstances or geographic limitations. We make the elimination of health inequality a foundational principle of our technology, ensuring that marginalized groups can enjoy equal access to convenient testing.
1 Hardware Simplification and Resource Adaptation: To overcome power and equipment limitations in remote areas and primary-level settings, we optimized circuit power consumption, enabled solar-power support, and retained the most intuitive LED indicator-light judgment mode, allowing caregivers to operate the device proficiently without a professional medical background.
2 Equitable Outreach and Device Promotion Across Regions: To truly embody fairness and accessibility in device promotion and instructional use, our activities reached a wide range of primary-level and marginalized settings. The team personally visited nursing homes, kindergartens, schools in remote areas, and county-level communities to demonstrate the instrument and provide hands-on operating instruction to local residents and staff. This helped break down geographic and resource barriers and laid a solid foundation for broader future deployment of the device.
3 Comprehensive Care for Special Populations: While creating Braille picture books and tactile models of the testing technology for students with disabilities, we collected genuine feedback from special populations on the tactile feel of the device and used it to directly improve Braille prompts and button design on the hardware enclosure. This deep exchange of ideas not only disseminated knowledge, but also allowed the needs of vulnerable groups to meaningfully change the direction of our hardware development.
The principle of “non-maleficence” in biomedical ethics requires foreseeable risks to be minimized during interventions. Direct or indirect harm to users, operators, and communities should be eliminated as far as possible across the physical, biological, and psychological dimensions.
(1) Research-Ethics Red Line: Adhering to “Zero Live-Organism Participation” To eliminate any possibility of highly pathogenic organisms escaping, we firmly chose a synthetic-biology approach, using plasmids and synthetic genomic sequences to simulate pathogen genetic characteristics and never placing team members or the public at biological risk.
(2) Environmentally Friendly Materials and Device Safety: In hardware manufacturing, the device enclosure uses 3D-printing technology together with an environmentally friendly automotive-paint spraying process. All processing materials and surface coatings are strictly screened to ensure that they are environmentally friendly, non-toxic, and harmless, protecting users and primary-level environments from the source at the level of physical materials.
(3) Algorithmic Ethics Focused on Accuracy: Our AI model is specifically and rigorously applied to processing and analyzing fluorescence signals in experiments. With algorithmic assistance, we substantially improved the accuracy and specificity of signal readout and avoided misjudgments caused by manual reading errors, using technical means to safeguard the scientific validity and safety of test results.
The draft framework requires child verbal assent, guardian authorisation for identifiable media, teacher supervision, safe materials, the right to withdraw, anonymisation, encrypted storage, and a defined destruction date.
The draft protocol defines optional audio/video, a 20–40-minute interaction, anonymisation, encrypted storage, withdrawal without penalty, a non-diagnostic disclaimer, and a proxy route when appropriate.
Through the layered screening and constraints of the CARES framework, our project not only achieved research compliance in the laboratory stage, but also established a robust barrier of responsibility for real-world social application. This framework will ensure that what we communicate is both compassionate and firmly within ethical boundaries.
The supplied guide is a project proposal rather than an approved standard. It outlines how community health centres, elderly-care institutions, childcare institutions, and local disease-control agencies could coordinate:
These thresholds, data flows, and clinical actions require professional, privacy, regulatory, and local public-health review before implementation.
Reflection and summary
Human Practices closes no chapter permanently; it keeps evidence, responsibility, and design in conversation.
Begin with lived experience and institutional reality.
Turn needs into measurable design requirements.
Compare assumptions with technical and field evidence.
Bring what changed back to stakeholders and reopen the loop.
Our reflectionThe strongest result of our iHP work is not a single interview or feature. It is a traceable method for showing who influenced a decision, what changed, which claims remain provisional, and what evidence must come next.
What supports this page
Formal narrative, design instructions, research instruments, and ethics drafts were treated differently.
The preface, stakeholder analysis, Topic Origin, Project Design, and CARES sections provide the formal page content.
Navigation, collapsible interviews, interactive stakeholder mapping, dual tracks, and PACE cards were implemented but the internal notes themselves are not visible.
Questionnaires, the scoring basis, the proposed guide, and consent safeguards are represented as accessible English summaries.
Unsigned consent forms, personal phone numbers, signatures, Chinese duplicate pages, and internal wireframes are not published.
Measures prevention familiarity, information sources, medical access, barriers to care, desired education topics, preferred communication formats, participation willingness, and open suggestions.
Publication limit: this instrument contains no sample size, response data, or result charts.
Covers seven respiratory diseases, perceived severity, RSV/hMPV awareness, vaccination and information sources, community priorities, acceptable price for a rapid five-pathogen test, and support for sentinel surveillance.
Publication limit: questions only; no completed response data.
Covers use scenarios, desired pathogens, operating complexity, app functions, device and per-test price, privacy, data sharing, and clinician access.
Publication limit: questions only; no completed response data.
Covers existing methods, turnaround, pain points, desired speed, simplicity, non-invasive sampling, multiplexing, cost, workflow integration, barriers, training, and price bands.
Publication limit: the document is an instrument, not a results report.
Covers testing time, travel, cost, emotional burden, home-testing competence, result preferences, support channels, and a six-step observed saliva-kit usability protocol.
Publication limit: no completed responses or sample size are included.
Defines five power dimensions and five interest indicators, records six scorers, and provides final median values with convergence. The complete values appear in Stakeholder Part 2.
Documents how the team plans stakeholder research, assembles evidence, checks feedback against assumptions, and evolves the project through continued two-way communication.
Publication limit: this page summarises the framework; partner records and unfinished files are not exposed.
Evidence becomes useful when it changes a decision.
