The Biomedical Diagnostics Institute (BDI) is a Science Foundation Ireland CSET (Centre for Science, Engineering and Technology). Established in October 2005, the BDI is an Academic-Industrial-Clinical partnership that carries out cutting-edge research programmes focussed on the development of next-generation biomedical diagnostic devices. These devices are targeted at Point of Care applications: these include near-patient testing, self-testing in the home, and diagnosis of disease in the low-resource environments of the developing world. The availability of such devices measuring specific indicators (biomarkers) of disease will allow for life-threatening events to be detected long before a critical stage is reached, and allow chronic diseases to be controlled more effectively. Patients will also be empowered to take control over the management of their own health, improving the quality of their lives, reducing hospital stays and saving lives. Many of these new devices will also incorporate advanced communication technologies to enable expert monitoring to be provided remotely from the patient.