mHealth: To Boldly Go Where No Phone Has Gone Before

While cast members from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” celebrated their 25th anniversary last year, the X Prize Foundation and Qualcomm announced a $10 million Tricorder X Prize, expected to be awarded in mid-2016. Even if you’re not a Sci-Fi fan who knows what a medical tricorder is, using a hand-held instrument to scan and instantly diagnose patients is a mainstream idea close to becoming a reality. 

Beyond even the capabilities of a Star Trek communicator, smartphones have revolutionized the way people interact with each other and consume everything from news to entertainment. Physicians are using the small mobile devices to receive alerts about patients, connect with other providers for consultations, even review test results. But we don’t have to wait until 2016 and the announcement of an X Prize winner to experience hand-held, mobile diagnostics. Smartphones are already poised to enter the physical healthcare space and launch themselves from communication devices and reference manuals into the orbit of diagnostic tools.

Need to check your blood pressure, glucose levels, or monitor your heart rhythm? With attachments, a specialized case, or even just an app with a complex algorithm, smartphones are becoming another tool in a provider’s bag of tricks. Smartphone devices and applications are also being developed that determine eye prescriptions, take images of a child’s inner ear for remote diagnosis of ear infections, and act as a microscope to analyze fluid samples for diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. 

What’s the new frontier for mobile communication devices, and where will they go next?