You cannot possibly software update a device like this. The actual detection mechanics are chemical. The advance is in miniaturizing and automating tasks which used to take a laboratory and staff to do.
Also, how does this device perform a test for a viral infection and for a bacterial infection, if the tests are unique and chemical? Does it use a particular substance for each test, which has to be refilled per use? (Again, I have no idea how this stuff works.)
I know that 23andme continues to produce new information about my genes as new studies are done to find genetic markers for various diseases and traits, which is pretty cool. If there were a device that detected viral and bacterial RNA/DNA, would that be software extensible?
Quote from the article:
"Blood from a patient is drawn through microscopic channels where it then meets chemicals that react with HIV and syphilis antibodies to produce a color change. This can then be picked up by a set of photocells in the dongle, and the results are then sent to an app on the attached smartphone or computer."
Beyond that, these testing systems probably can't manage the sensitivity and specificity of a properly run diagnostic lab. That's fine for the setting they're being considered in, because those labs don't exist, are hard to reach or can be easily overwhelmed in an outbreak, but for a developed world setting? I don't really see it. Home diagnostics for infectious diseases over a broad range of potential pathogens is a really hard technical challenge with no real payoff - you still need to go to the doctor.
Lab results alone do not a medically responsible treatment plan make.
And, as an epidemiologist, the ready availability of antibiotics without any interaction with a doctor is something I'd be pretty comfortable classifying as inherently irresponsible.