New Use for Cell Phones in Medicine

Through documentaries, television, world reports, and non-profit organizations the rest of the world can get a glimpse of the hardships and limited resources developing countries endure. Poverty, famine, violence and inaccessible medical care plagued millions of people worldwide. The idea of medical centers equipped with ultrasounds, X-rays and other medical resources to diagnose and treat patients is a scarcity for many developing countries. However, a new opportunity has surfaced making the benefit of having medical images readily accessible to doctors through their cell phones.

This technology was developed by Professor Boris Rubinsky of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His new method makes it possible to obtain a variety of medical images via cell phones. According to the World Health Organization, 75% of the world's population has no access to medical technology. The benefit of this new technology is that detection and monitoring for many conditions can be offered. The diagnosis and treatment plan for about 20% of diseases can now be improved in these developing nations. Detecting tumors to confirm tuberculosis or progressive monitoring of a fetus through pregnancy can now be made possible.

Rubinsky's cell phone medical imaging technology is cost-effective and accessible which are extremely advantageous for most of these areas where this technology is virtually absent. Transmitting medical images involves an independent data acquisition device (DAD). The DAD will be at the remote medical site. The device is simplistic and connected to cell phones through more sophisticated hardware located at a central site.

Doctors from the remote location will transmit raw data from the DAD-cell phone connection. This information will be received by the central facility which can be anywhere in the world. The central location uses soft- and hardware to convert the information into an image. Finally the data is sent back out in the form of an image viewable on the cell phone.

Rubinksy's research uses electrical impedance tomography (EIT) to utilize cell phone use in medical imaging. EIT use relies on the idea that diseased and healthy tissue transmits electrical currents differently. The medical image is generated from the difference in resistance from electrical currents and transmitted to the DAD-cell phone connection.

Despite the lack of medical equipment these areas do have cell phone communication. Rubinsky claims that this new technology reduces the cost of medical imaging devices by keeping the technology simple at the patient site and removing the need to train health workers in operating medical imaging apparatus. The cell phone already offers so much to people worldwide. Now with this new research it holds the promise of helping people in need of life-changing medical information as well.

Source: Medical images may soon be transmitted via cell phones