System for genetic surveillance and analysis

1. A method of performing genetic surveillance, comprising:

performing genetic assay analysis of a sample obtained from an individual member of a population using a reader-analyzer instrument, said reader-analyzer instrument comprising an integrated sample and assay preparation apparatus configured to capture said sample, suspend said sample in solution, and process said sample;

generating sample genetic data based on said genetic assay analysis using said reader-analyzer instrument, said reader-analyzer configured to capture said sample genetic data using optical analysis of fluorescent signals;

capturing contextual information associated with said sample using said reader-analyzer instrument, said contextual information comprising spatial information and temporal information;

communicating said spatial information and temporal information associated with said genetic sample data over a network using said reader-analyzer instrument to effect said communication; and

communicating targeting instructions over a network to said reader-analyzer instrument, said targeting instructions identifying at least one of a bacteria, virus, pathogen, and target sequence for targeting by the reader-analyzer instrument.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising communicating said spatial information and temporal information associated with said sample genetic data to a laboratory response network.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising using at least one portable reader-analyzer instrument to perform genetic assay analysis of said sample.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising communicating said spatial information and temporal information associated with said sample genetic data from a first reader-analyzer instrument to a second reader-analyzer instrument.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing sample preparation steps on said sample based on information received over said network, said sample preparation steps including manipulation of at least one assay.

6. The method of claim 1 and wherein said manipulation is performed based on information received over said network.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein comprising generating said sample data comprises collecting data that identifies a presence or an absence of at least one pathogenic organism.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said collecting data step is performed by analyzing at least one target sequence related to the at least one pathogenic organism.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising collecting demographic information from said individual member of a population.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said demographic information is associated with said spatial information, said temporal information and said sample genetic data.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein said reader-analyzer instrument is associated with an automatic sensing device and the sample obtaining step is performed automatically by said automatic sensing device.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein said sample obtaining step is performed by the user of said reader-analyzer instrument.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the integrated sample and assay preparation module is a microfluidics card.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the microfluidics card comprises of a reaction chamber and a sample inlet port.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the microfluidics card is configured to provide for detection of a detection probe.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the detection probe is suitable for detecting single nucleotide polymorphisms.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reader-analyzer instrument is configured to retrieve said spatial information based on at least one of a global positioning device or a geographic lookup table using an internet protocol address.