Created initially to make
wireless verbal and then digital communication available to everyone, now cell phones are being used
for everything from watching movies to social networking to
ordering food and movie tickets and even shopping. The application potentials
are limitless and now even medical applications have jumped on the cell phone
bandwagon. This means that similar to telemedicine,
smart phones can relay important information from remote locations to medical
specialists.
For example, frequently
occurring, potentially life-threatening conditions such as apnea and
pneumothorax can be easily ruled out by performing an ultrasound
that visualizes a respiratory motion known as lung sliding. Institutions from
around the world collaborated on a study that assessed how economically and
practically this information could be obtained remotely over a cellular
network. 1
In this study, remote expert
sonographers taught remote providers with little to no ultrasound experience
how to obtain the images needed to rule out apnea and pneumothorax. Through the
use of handheld
ultrasound units streaming images via Skype services on an iPhone,
examinations were conducted between a series of remote sites and a base
station. These included: two remote on-mountain sites, a small airplane in
flight, and a Calgary household, with base sites
located in Pisa , Rome ,
Philadelphia , and Calgary .
In every example, lung
sliding could easily and quickly be seen. Furthermore, the respiratory
motion was easily substantiated and documented through capture of
color-power Doppler and M-mode images. Other ultrasound applications, such as
the Focused Assessment with Sonography for Trauma examination, vascular
anatomy, and a fetal wellness assessment were also demonstrated.
In another study,
conducted in South Korea ,
a team of scientists from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science of Technology2
demonstrated that touch screen technology can be used to detect biomolecular
matter, in a similar way that standard medical tests are now conducted. Rather
than spending hours waiting in lines at clinics and hospitals for tests, based
on the idea that touch screens work by recognizing electronic signs based on
the touch of a finger; the presence of DNA and particular proteins should be
recognizable, as well.
Biochemicals, including proteins and DNA
molecules, carry specific electronic charges and touch screens on smart phones
work by sensing the electronic charges from the user's body on the screen. The
Korean team’s experiments showed that touch screens can recognize the existence
and the concentration of DNA molecules placed on them. They confirmed that touch screens are able to
recognize DNA molecules with nearly 100 per cent accuracy just as large,
conventional medical equipment can.
Eventually, the hope is that the touch
screen will be able to identify bacteria or other disease from fluids as
diverse as sputum, blood, saliva or even urine. And if along the way,
researchers can find ways to overcome interference from things like sweat,
moisture, etc., they'll be on the road to a whole new method of mobile
diagnostics. Since
putting blood or urine on a touch screen is undesirable, the sample would be
placed on a strip, which would then be fed into the phone or a module attached to
the phone through a designated entrance point.
1. “Simple, Almost Anywhere, With Almost Anyone: Remote Low-Cost Telementored Resuscitative Lung Ultrasound” The Journal of Trauma – December 2011
2. Dr Hyun-gyu Park and Dr Byongyeon Won - Korea Advanced Institute of Science of Technology - Angewandte Chemie Journal - January 2012
1. “Simple, Almost Anywhere, With Almost Anyone: Remote Low-Cost Telementored Resuscitative Lung Ultrasound” The Journal of Trauma – December 2011
2. Dr Hyun-gyu Park and Dr Byongyeon Won - Korea Advanced Institute of Science of Technology - Angewandte Chemie Journal - January 2012






