The smartphone is poised to become the most important invention in the next 20 years, based on new technology that is proven to be valuable in diagnosing a number of ailments.
Israeli entrepreneur, Yonatan Adiri for instance, invented the Healthy.io smartphone app, with a urine kit that screens for signs of urinary tract infection, diabetes, and kidney disease.
Through what Adiri calls ‘Medical selfies’, the diagnosis involves the use of a dipstick, which the patient uses a color-coded cardboard frame on their phones that scans urine. The image is then sent to the cloud for analysis, detecting substances such as blood, sugars or proteins.
Normally a trained clinician analyses the color changes by eye, but Healthy.io’s smartphone app can do it equally well using its computer vision algorithm.
To guide users through the process step-by-step, a chatbot called Emily takes people through using voice, text and video.
Similarly, a vision test app, Peek Vision, is also another smartphone app that has been instrumental in the diagnosis of eye problems.
The app displays the letter E on the phone screen and this changes in size and orientation during the test. It can also simulate what the world looks like to someone with bad eyesight and works out if the answer was right or wrong.
Experts reveal that the main advantage of a smartphone is its huge computational power, a high-resolution screen, excellent cameras and is, importantly, connected and available worldwide.
According to a BBC report, more than 250,000 people have so far been screened in Kenya, Botswana and India, with the costs being picked up by partner charities and governments.