Smartphones ringing changes in health care

SMARTPHONES may soon be able to do more than text, take selfies and make calls as researchers are working on having them diagnose infectious diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa.

A review, published in Nature and online research platform, outlines how health-care workers in low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa could use existing smartphones to diagnose, track and control infectious diseases.

This new review by researchers from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the Africa Health Research Institute, Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, University College London, Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says smartphones could also help enable people test themselves, and get results and support in their own homes.

Researchers said this would make it easier for people to look after their own health – particularly in rural regions, where clinics can be too far away to reach.

Lead author Professor Molly Stevens, from Imperial’s Departments of Bioengineering and Materials, said: “People increasingly use smartphones to manage their money and connect with the world.

“It makes sense that cellphones can also play an even larger role in health care than they already do.”

In addition, patients worried about a potential HIV infection might be more inclined to get tested if they could do it at home and avoid the stigma of attending a clinic.

“Many smartphones have sensors built in that could aid diagnosis, such as a heart-rate monitor and an oximeter, as well as a camera and microphone that can be used to analyse images and sounds like a person’s breathing.”

In addition, simple testing technologies are being developed that can be linked into a cellphone, via a USB stick or wirelessly. In theory, a person could test themselves using an easy-to-collect sample such as a pinprick of blood, and the results would be scanned on to mobile apps.

The apps would send the results to local clinics before being uploaded to a central online database – instead of patients having to attend in person.

Co-author Dr Chris Wood said: “By developing mobile health interventions, we address a number of challenges in health care and public education. Connected diagnostic tests for diseases have the ability to improve and build on these in new and exciting ways.”