Health in Your Hands: How Your Phones Double Up as Medical Devices.

kmdfaheem · 发表于 2019-06-14 18:46:49

[div align="left"][p dir="ltr"]

[br]

[p dir="ltr"]It’s not an exaggeration to say that smartphones have become an integral part of our lives which we can’t seem to do without. Cheap or expensive – there’s a type for everyone, with apps, for almost everything under the sun. Digital health latched on to this a few years ago, connecting patients and doctors with a click. Now health tech is going beyond and is using this tiny device as a medical equipment.

[/div][p dir="ltr"][br]
Let’s take a look at some such innovations.

[div align="left"][p dir="ltr"][strong]1. Smartphone as Ultrasound[/strong]

[/div][p dir="ltr"][br]

[p dir="ltr"]This affordable, portable ultrasound device works with a smartphone. It’s a hand-held ultrasound scanner called the Butterfly iQ. The scanner can be connected to a smartphone and the result is displayed on the phone screen.

[p dir="ltr"]The device offers diagnostic capabilities to patients living far from medical infrastructure. It’s currently being used in African villages, where the access to machines like X-ray, MRI scanner and ultrasound is poor.

[p dir="ltr"]It even has the potential to fill such a gap in rural India. Jonathan Rothberg, Butterfly’s founder, was quoted as saying:

[blockquote][p dir="ltr"]Two-thirds of the world’s population gets no imaging at all. When you put something on a chip, the price goes down and you democratise it.

[br]
[/blockquote][div align="left"][p dir="ltr"][strong]2. Smartphone as Ventilator[/strong][br][br]

[br]
[/div][p dir="ltr"]

[br][br]
It’s touted to be world’s cheapest portable ventilator.[br][br]
A low-cost, user-friendly portable ventilator has made it possible for patients on ventilator in hospitals to finally go home after years. Developed by AIIMS neurosurgeon Dr Deepak Aggarwal and 26-year-old robotics scientist Professor Diwakar Vaish, it’s touted to be the world’s cheapest, while providing the same quality and functioning as that of a traditional ventilator.

[p dir="ltr"]And to top it, you can run it via your Android phone.

[blockquote][p dir="ltr"]One thing we realised is that most patients and their relatives own a smartphone. And we wanted to make something that’s user-friendly. So we designed an app.

[br]
[p dir="ltr"]Professor Diwakar Vaish, Robotics Scientist. [br][br]

[br]
[/blockquote][p dir="ltr"][br][br]
The innovators plan to address an acute shortage of ventilators in India, in hospitals, clinics, ambulances etc.

[div align="left"][p dir="ltr"][strong]3. Smartphone as ECG Machine[/strong][br][br]

[br]
[/div][p dir="ltr"]

[br][br]
Well, Apple did make noise about this with the Series 4 smartwatch boasting of providing an ECG feature, which means the wearer will be able to check their electrocardiography reading. It has what is called a single-lead electrocardiogram. To help you understand things, a regular medical ECG machine is a 12-lead electrocardiogram. So, it can’t replace the real deal, but can provide a primary diagnostic tool to check if something’s wrong.[br]

[p dir="ltr"]AliveCor, on the other hand, claims to provide a “medical-grade ECG anytime, anywhere” on a mobile. It’s Generation 2 device contains 6 leads and is with the FDA for clearance.

[p dir="ltr"]It lets you capture an electrocardiogram at home and alerts doctors if something is wrong with your heart. “In just 30 seconds, detect normal heart rhythm or AFib,” reads their website.

[p dir="ltr"]These devices are enabling patients to predict possible health issues and address them quickly.

[div align="left"][p dir="ltr"][strong]4. Smartphone as Stethoscope[/strong]

[/div][p dir="ltr"][br]
Your phone now turns stethoscope. It can gather recordings of a person’s heartbeat and send this information over to a doctor for further assessment. It’s an app ‘Mobile Stethoscope’ for iOS, which records the body’s inner sounds using the phone’s microphone.

[p dir="ltr"]This can enable remote check-up and has the potential to identify respiratory disease, which often goes undetected. They built it to automatically detect a wheezing sound. The inventors tested their product at a clinic in India, with 86 percent success.

[div align="left"][p dir="ltr"][strong]5. Smartphone for Diagnosing Infectious Diseases[/strong]

[/div][p dir="ltr"][br]
A low-cost smartphone accessory by Columbia University researchers that can detect markers of infectious diseases – like HIV and syphilis – with just a finger prick of blood within 15 minutes. The small accessory or dongle easily connects to a smartphone to obtain blood test results.

[p dir="ltr"]This can provide point-of-care diagnosis for sexually-transmitted diseases (STDs). Something that needed a full laboratory set up can now be run on a smartphone.

[p dir="ltr"]So many such devices pioneered by health tech leaders are being used in developing countries and areas which lack a robust healthcare system, to fill the gap.

[p] -------------------------------------

[p]Stay tuned for more interesting informations.[br][br]Till then,[br][br]Keep Infinixing for latest and best quality information.[br][br](Source:https://fit.thequint.com/digital-health/smartphone-health-tech-medical-devices)