I am rarely excited by a new gimmick. But this one is really
exciting.
Mobile-phone microscopes
Doctor on call
May 15th 2008
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11367989
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA
From The Economist print edition
Simple accessories could turn mobile phones into useful medical
devices
ROBI MAAMARI stares intently at the screen of his mobile phone. The
student is not squinting to tap out yet another daft text message, but
looking carefully for the faint blue dots that are the tell-tale
diagnostic signature of malaria.
Mr Maamari is a member of a research team led by Dan Fletcher, a
professor of bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley,
which has developed a cheap attachment to turn the digital camera on
many of today's mobile phones into a microscope. Called a CellScope,
it can show individual white and red blood cells, which means that
with the correct stain it can be used to identify the parasite that
causes malaria. Moreover, by transmitting an image directly over the
mobile network, the CellScope could greatly help with the remote
diagnosis and monitoring of many illnesses.
The project, which began as a challenge by Dr Fletcher to his
undergraduate students to turn their mobile phones into microscopes,
gained momentum when they came up with some practical designs.
Although the first prototype covered a tabletop, the latest uses
commercially available lenses fitted inside a tube that snaps directly
onto the phone. One end has a clip for holding a sample slide, and
different levels of magnification are possible. The team thinks the
attachments, if mass-produced, could be made smaller and tougher, and
sell for less than $100.
The diagnosis of malaria was the first test because it demands a
high-quality image. In recent weeks the team has successfully
identified its first samples. Eventually CellScope promises to extend
the clinician's range. Someone with a small amount of training would
be able to take and stain blood samples, and then capture and transmit
images to an expert who could carry out the diagnosis.
The images also help create digital records, which would make it
easier to monitor and verify the success of a drug trial or the
introduction of mosquito nets in a remote area, for instance.
Not surprisingly, interest in the project is growing. Microsoft has
donated some camera phones equipped with satellite-navigation devices
and Nokia has been in touch. Even the research arm of America's
defence department has expressed an interest. Once a final prototype
is ready, it may be tested by doctors in the Philippines and Colombia.
Applications need not be confined to the developing world. Many cancer
patients have to travel to a hospital each week for simple cell counts
to be carried out. Dr Fletcher hopes the CellScope may enable them to
do this from home. Also, farmers who suffer crop blight could send
images from plant samples for remote diagnosis by agricultural
experts. The Berkeley team is working on this idea with the University
of Florida, which runs a remote diagnostics programme for farmers.
Another group of bioengineers at Berkeley is looking at other ways to
use mobile phones in medicine. Boris Rubinsky and his colleagues think
they could help make medical imagining simpler, cheaper and more
widely available. His team re****t in a recent issue of Public Library
of Science (PloS) ONE on a design to use mobile phones to send raw
imaging data to a base where it could be processed with the
sophisticated software needed to create a medical image. The image
could then be returned to the mobile phone and viewed on it. The
mobile phone may join the stethoscope and the thermometer as an
indispensable piece of medical kit.
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