Neonatal screening for sickle cell disease (SCD), when linked to early diagnostic testing, parental education, and comprehensive care, markedly reduces morbidity and mortality from the disease in infancy and early childhood (1, 2). Largely unaddressed, the inability to diagnose SCD rapidly, reliably, and at low cost continues to be a significant contributor to high morbidity and mortality in many resource-limited settings. Until recently, few practical and reliable point-of-care methods for the diagnosis of SCD existed. The recent call by major organizations, such as the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the World Health Organization for simple, rapid and low-cost diagnostic techniques for SCD, has led to more research dedicated to solving this global problem. In 2013, Milligan et al. proposed the use of hemolysis in deoxygenated isosmotic sucrose solution as a method to diagnose SCD (3). In that same year, Yang et al. described a paper-based solubility test able to differentiate between SCD, sickle cell trait, and nonhemoglobin S-containing blood (4). In PNAS, Kumar et al. present an innovative approach to SCD point-of-care testing using density gradients created by aqueous multiphase systems (AMPS) (5).