The testing table in this hut in Baga Village is made from split bamboo, like the floor.

There is dry cane grass hanging from the ceiling to keep the flies away from blood samples, while light and curious children peek through the floor boards.

It's swelteringly hot and the conditions aren't exactly controlled, but this is a field trial, designed to see if these experimental methods and equipment can hold up in a situation like this.

Associate Professor Bayden Wood from Monash University putting blood on test strips. ( ABC News: Eric Tlozek )

Inside this hut in the Tufi District of Oro Province, Papua New Guinea, are two biospectroscopists — scientists who use light to analyse tissue or fluids — from Monash University.

Associate Professor Bayden Wood is leading their research into developing a new way of detecting malaria in poor, remote communities.

"What we've developed here is really a game changer in terms of disease diagnostics," he said.

No Roads to Health volunteer Katherine Teagle takes a blood sample from a patient at Tufi Station. ( ABC News: Eric Tlozek )

"The technology is very simple to use, it's very portable and weighs about 7 kilograms so we can actually carry it into villages like this, we can set it up very quickly."

That technology is a small spectrometer, an even smaller centrifuge for blood and a laptop.

It's all powered by a battery smaller than that which starts your car.

Capacity to almost wipe out malaria

The researchers are using this kit to screen the blood of villagers in the hope of finding those who harbour the malaria parasite.

"So we actually use infra-red light, and infra-red light essentially heats up the samples and causes molecules to vibrate and we're actually detecting the vibrations of these molecules," Professor Wood said.

"So in, say, a malaria parasite, it has its own chemistry, its own RNA, its DNA, its own distinct, unique chemical fingerprint and it's from this basic fingerprint that we do the diagnosis."

No Roads to Health volunteers Helen Fountain and Cailley Orrock treat a patient at the clinic. ( ABC News: Eric Tlozek )

The advantages of this approach are that it's quick and the test can detect multiple strains of the malaria parasite, but Professor Wood believes the benefits are potentially much bigger.

He thinks the technique could almost wipe out malaria if it's used to screen entire communities to find "asymptomatic carriers", the people who harbour the parasite but don't get sick.

"These people act as a reservoir, because they get bitten by mosquitoes and pass it on to other members of the community," he said.

"Really what our project is about is about detecting these people and treating these people and in that way eliminating malaria."

Malaria endemic

Malaria is one of the biggest health problems in developing countries and is estimated to affect almost half the world's population.

PNG's health authorities warn it's a devastating disease that's particularly dangerous for pregnant women and young children.

The provincial health advisor for Oro Province, Copeland Ihove, said it's the most prevalent illness in the region.

"In PNG, malaria is endemic," he said.

"It's still the number one killer of our patients that are admitted… malaria is still the highest burden in the province."

Mothers and babies outside the clinic in Tufi. Expectant mothers and young children are most at risk of dying from malaria. ( ABC News: Eric Tlozek )

This type of field trial — visiting remote villages in Papua New Guinea and taking blood from people — is not straightforward.

To overcome the significant logistical and cultural hurdles, the researchers joined a volunteer team of nurses from the charity No Roads to Health, who have been conducting clinics and building relationships in these communities for several years.

Group leader Andrew Grasby said the health volunteers have seen the prevalence of malaria and know its impact in these places.

"Malaria is prolific within the communities, everybody is talking about malaria, it has a high mortality rate, so malaria would be the number one health priority in these communities," he said.

An Oro Province woman at the health clinic. ( ABC News: Eric Tlozek )

Endless possibilities

The researchers now need to check their on-site analysis of the blood with a different kind of test back in the laboratory in Melbourne.

Professor Wood said if it's shown to have worked, the next step is to commercialise and refine the technology, in the hope it could be brought back to these remote villages and widely used.

Dr David Perez-Guaita from Monash University analysing blood with the spectrometer. ( ABC News: Eric Tlozek )

"It would be the most exciting thing for us and what we really strive for as scientists, to develop a technology people can use and it's really about translating the technology into the field," he said.

"If we can do that as scientists, we really feel like we've made a significant difference to the communities and to the people of PNG."

In the future, this test could detect more than just malaria.

The researchers are working on applying it to other serious diseases like HIV, hepatitis and diabetes.

"This type of technology, once you build the models, can be applied to a whole range of different diseases," Professor Wood said.

"Here in this village, we're not only doing malaria, we're also doing glucose testing for diabetes and also haemoglobin testing.

"So really the technology has the advantage of being a multi-disease diagnostic technology, that from the one pin-prick of blood we can diagnose a variety of diseases."