Commercially successful sensors used in the Point-of-Care market involve integration of sensitive sensor components into robust analytical systems.  Technologies incorporated into these systems generally converge upon a very small number of methodologies compared with the large variety reported in journals and patents.  Sorting through this literature to discern which innovations might appear in commercial products is a daunting task.  One useful tool is analysis of the intellectual landscape via free patent searches, but the product of these efforts can lack organization.  Relationships been technologies have often been depicted in patent maps which focus on technologies, products and ownership.  Newly emerging tools in this realm will be described to identify market leaders, innovators and explorers.

Early identification of important new advances also depends on a firm understanding of the capabilities of sensors currently on the market.  Current products can be broadly divided into detection of ions, small molecules and proteins.  A review of products in these categories will be provided to allow assessment of the potential for new technologies that may impact or disrupt the field.  Several potentially disruptive electrochemical technologies including digital microfluidic immunoassays will be described.  Finally, relatively incremental, but effective, examples of advances in multi-enzymatic amperometric systems and their incorporation into robust polymer formulations will be presented.  Combining the analysis of emerging intellectual property and experimental studies is suggested as a powerful approach for identifying areas ripe for discovery, as well as predicting the future trajectory of new products.