Have you ever visited a loved one in the hospital and noticed their face had a slightly gray hue? You might have asked a nurse or doctor about the skin color. They would have told you it was caused by a lack of oxygen in the blood. However, you might have known that before the visible change in skin color if you had done a smartphone diagnosis.
The use of consumer devices capable of monitoring health issues gained public attention last month when British author Adam Croft’s Apple Watch alerted him to a heart problem. However, more of us have smartphones than smartwatches. As a result, smartphones are leading the way in transforming healthcare.
Instead of booking clinical visits weeks or months away, you can now use your smartphone to record health information. That information is analyzed through Artificial Intelligence based on a database of information from other anonymous individuals. Consequently, the data can be sent to your physician. That can mean earlier treatment.
Smartphone Diagnosis
The modern smartphone contains over a dozen sensors that feed information to the phone’s chip. Those sensors measure things such as distance, movement, light, temperature, brightness, and pressure.
Through those sensors, smartphones with the right app are capable of performing medical readings. Those readings can be used to produce a diagnosis.
As an example, let’s go back to the loved one in the hospital mentioned above.
A smartphone can detect changes in skin and blood color that are not visible to the human eye and can indicate a low supply of oxygen.
Oxygen is carried through the blood by a protein called hemoglobin. A smartphone can pick up changes in the color of hemoglobin to measure oxygen in the blood.
However, in addition to cardiovascular issues, a smartphone diagnosis can detect respiratory problems, eye disease, and many other health issues.
Taking Vital Signs
Every physician visit includes taking your vital signs. These simple, non-invasive tests measure things such as your heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, height, and weight, and can include temperature.
With a smartphone diagnosis, you can measure most of those things on your own. If necessary, you can then send the results to your physician. From there, your provider might order further tests and/or schedule an appointment.
FDA Approval
Some of the companies providing software and other tools that aid smartphone diagnosis have sought approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Such approval might help with getting insurance companies to cover the cost of software and supplies.
One application recently approved by the FDA employs a smartphone camera to detect early signs of chronic kidney disease. Healthy.io’s Minuteful Kidney test uses a smartphone’s camera to detect the protein albumin, an indicator of kidney disease.
“We have the experience, results, and regulatory assurances to fundamentally change how Americans monitor chronic conditions using their smartphone camera”, said Healthy.io Founder and CEO Yonatan Adiri. “In effect, Minuteful Kidney is a digital antidote that can help every person at risk dramatically decrease their probability of undergoing dialysis.”
An estimated one in seven Americans is affected by kidney disease, according to the American Kidney Fund. In addition, because symptoms often go undetected, nine in 10 people with kidney disease are undiagnosed.
Conclusion
Although smartphone diagnosis is making advances, there are still glitches.
Because light is used to measure heart rate in a smartphone diagnosis, one study found that results can be thrown off by darker skin tones.
In addition, some applications may not have enough data to prevent occasional false positives or false negatives.
However, the prospect of early detection leading to earlier treatment may outweigh any drawbacks.
Read More:
- Tips for Preparing and Filing Your Small Business Taxes Correctly
- Effective Ways to Save Money on Business Taxes
- Should You Be Paying to File Your Taxes?
Come back to what you love! Dollardig.com is the most reliable cashback site on the web. Just sign up, click, shop, and get full cash back!