U.S. medical scientists say they have created a prototype device that can test a person for hundreds of diseases simultaneously.

University of Utah scientists say the device, similar to a card-swipe machine, scans a card loaded with microscopic blood, saliva or urine samples.

"Think how fast your PC reads data on a hard drive, and imagine using the same technology to monitor your health," said Professor Marc Porter, senior author of two studies demonstrating the new method for rapid disease testing.

"You can envision this as a wellness check in which a patient sample -- blood, urine, saliva -- is spotted on a sample stick or card, scanned and then the readout indicates your state of well-being," said research scientist Michael Granger, a co-author of the study. "We have a great sensor able to look for many disease markers."

The scientists said unlike today's lab tests that can take hours or weeks to complete, results would be available within minutes.

The research that included John Nordling, Rachel Millen and Heather Bullen at Iowa State University in Ames and Mark Tondra, then with the NVE Corp. in Eden Prairie, Minn., will appear in the Nov. 1 issue of the journal Analytical Chemistry.