Innovations in infectious disease testing: Leveraging COVID-19 pandemic technologies for the future

Innovations in infectious disease testing have improved our abilities to detect and understand the microbial world. The 2019 novel coronavirus infectious disease (COVID-19) pandemic introduced new innovations including non-prescription “over the counter” infectious disease tests, mass spectrometry-based detection of COVID-19 host response, and the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to identify individuals infected by the severe acute respiratory syndrome - coronavirus – 2 (SARS-CoV-2). As the world recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic; these innovative solutions will give rise to a new era of infectious disease tests extending beyond the detection of SARS-CoV-2. To this end, the purpose of this review is to summarize current trends in infectious disease testing and discuss innovative applications specifically in the areas of POC testing, MS, molecular diagnostics, sample types, and AI/ML.