Smart Phones Could Help Diagnose 1 in 4 Conditions by 2021
Published in
1 min readDec 5, 2016
Parasitic eye worms are a big problem in many parts of Africa. But a team at the University of California, Berkeley, just developed a screening method for this condition that takes just three minutes using a smartphone. The device, called CellScope Loa, takes a fingerprick for blood and directs your cell phone to take five short videos of worms inside of the blood. The software then analyzes the sample (with the help of an app) and, within a matter of seconds, a worm count pops up on the screen.
With similar projects underway in labs around the world, it won’t be long before people’s smartphones regularly play a major role in diagnosing countless conditions.
