Engineers at Cornell University have developed a new accessory and app for your smartphone that makes cholesterol checkups in an actual doctor’s office obsolete. The team of researchers has essentially managed to squeeze a medical lab onto a smartphone attachment—now, you don’t need to worry about taking the time to book an appointment. All you need is the app and attachment and a reagent test strip. Oh, and a bit of your blood.
Yes, we're curious too, curious owl
The most common cholesterol tests are done using readily available reagent test strips, which turn different colors based on the amount of cholesterol in the blood that is placed on them. The Cornell team's smartphone attachment, which is placed over your smartphone’s flash and camera, illuminates and then captures the color of the reagent strip and then sends the information to the accompanying mobile app.
Use this new attachment to avoid your doctor
This essentially eliminates the need for the specialized equipment normally used for this test, or even the need of the help of someone who trained in healthcare. You can learn more about the science behind it all by reading the team’s paper, published in the journal Lab on a Chip .
The team’s achievement is one in a long line of mobile apps being developed for medical purposes, including apps that can turn your smartphone into an ultrasound machine, sleep monitor, or heart monitor. At the rate that medical mobile apps are being developed—and at the rate consumers and uses are downloading them—those monthly checkups at your doctor’s could quickly become a thing of the past, especially if healthcare costs keep rising.
Which is not to say you should replace your actual, real-life doctor with your smartphone. Checking your cholesterol yourself is fun, but it doesn’t replace years of medical school, and neither does Web M.D.
Source: Mashable
Advertisement
