Another iPhone medical breakthrough!
Diabetics have a problem dealing with sugar because they don’t produce enough insulin (Type 1) or any insulin that is produced gets no reaction from the person’s cells (Type 2). Treatment is mainly through management of blood sugar levels which if done properly can stop many of the complications.
It’s the monitoring of those blood sugar levels that researchers are working towards making as simple and fast as possible, and the latest idea involves the use of a sensor tattoo and an iPhone 4…
Rather than having to take a blood sample Dr. Heather Clark of Northeastern University has come up with a method that can give instant feedback on levels of sodium, glucose, and alcohol in a person’s blood just by looking at a set of sensors under the skin.
The sensors are only 100nm wide and get placed under the skin just like tattoos are. Nanoparticles in the sensors attach to different aspects of the blood and have a color-changing effect on the sensor. Doing that for sodium, glucose, and alcohol presents three specific colors that tell you their current levels.
In order to read the sensor an iPhone 4 camera is used with an attachment powered by a battery. A blue LED is turned on to contrast with the sensors, and software on the iPhone can view and interpret the colors. The result is near instant feedback on the person’s blood state.
Work still needs to be done to allow the iPhone app to interpret the data properly, but that is only a matter of time. The key thing about this method is it uses widely available hardware and does not require someone with medical equipment and training to do the tests. The person with the embedded sensor can do it themselves regularly and react quickly if there is a problem.
It is going to be a few years before we see this system being given out to diabetics, but as time passes it will become more accurate because the cameras in smartphones get better with every launch. Better cameras mean more accurate feedback and better readings.
