Talking up a new role for cell phones in telemedicine

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In the first image the entrance to the microfluidic device (bottom center of strip) is dipped into urine. Next the urine wicks into the assay zones. In the third photo a cell phone camera digitizes the results and transmits them to an expert. Finally ...
In the first image, the entrance to the microfluidic device (bottom center of strip) is dipped into urine. Next, the urine wicks into the assay zones. In the third photo, a cell phone camera digitizes the results and transmits them to an expert. Finally, an expert interprets the results and replies with a treatment. Credit: Courtesy of George M. Whitesides, Harvard University
After launching a communications revolution, cell phones are talking up a potentially life-saving new role in telemedicine — the use of telecommunications technology to provide medical diagnosis and patient care when doctors and patients are hundreds or thousands of miles apart. Researchers in the United States and Brazil describe development of a simple, inexpensive telemedicine system that uses ordinary cell phone cameras to collect medical data from patients and transmit the data to experts located offsite for analysis and diagnosis.


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