Your smart phone may soon go way beyond a device you use to take calls, check email or text friends that you are running late. We reported recently on a diagnosis of a heart arrhythmia that was made using the AliveCor smart phone accessory (JAMA Internal Medicine, online Jan. 26, 2015).
One team of researchers has developed a dongle that can provide accurate testing for two sexually transmitted diseases within 15 minutes. The device uses blood from a finger prick and performs a highly accurate enzyme-linked assay that can be powered by a smart phone.
This provides an affordable, simple-to-operate way to identify whether a person has HIV or syphilis. We anticipate that other diagnostic devices will be developed before too long.
