Tell you one thing -- if scammers can remotely read credit card info now for identity theft, then a tricorder ought to be do-able.They are only reading credit cards with embedded RFID chips, which apparently idiotic credit card companies have insisted on adding to cards. Why? It's not really clear but it's completely moronic.
Someone upthread mentioned xrays and ultrasound, but how does that help anything? Without a vast amount of optical processing, a mobile device is never going to understand the output of that. Alternatively, if a human does it, mustn't I already be at the doctor's office?I don't know that it would be that difficult to see a broken bone in an ultrasound, but if you can't figure it out yourself and your phone can't process it, you could email the images to a doctor, or even live-stream them. You could even outsource it to someone who's job is just to view ultrasounds all day.
And if the device says "No, this doesn't match anything in my database"? What direction is that a step in?Cost savings by not having people waste finite medical resources when there's nothing wrong with them, thereby freeing up those resources to be used on people who do have problems and improve outcomes overall?
Chemicals in breath, or better yet urine, could be good. But redness, moles and especially "lopsided stance"? You people have never programmed a computer. It's going to take years of research and testing to look for those things.Dude seriously? Not only have I programmed computers, I've programmed computers to do exactly those kinds of things (well not with image data, personally but other types). I'm sure it's probably beyond you but it's not impossible
Despite Apple demoing the ability for download Blood Glucose results directly to an iPhone over 4 years ago, the device hasn't made it to market.It's the FDA. Medical devices need to be FDA approved just like drugs, and the standards are really, really stringent. Even if it were possible to upload glucose data to an smartphone, selling the app without FDA approval might be illegal.
I wonder why, but suspect the companies don't want it happening, even if it was technological possible. Though it might be easier if everyone had implanted chips that monitored their health. Companies would love that.
Chemicals in breath, or better yet urine, could be good. But redness, moles and especially "lopsided stance"? You people have never programmed a computer. It's going to take years of research and testing to look for those things. -- DUTexture Classification using Fractal Geometry for the Diagnosis of Skin Cancers
Right, and the fact that you don't get screened for skin cancer by someone pointing a camera at you and computing fractal geometry means, in general, that the technique doesn't provide the specificity and robustness needed to actually be a clinically-workable technique and pass the required review processes. -- BlueDukeThere's a pretty serious logical error in that paragraph.
To be clear, I think working to advance the development of the sensors and algorithms is a good thing, but it's also a good thing to be realistic about the current state of the art and not conflate academic research papers with something that is fieldable. -- BlueDukeUh that's nice but what does that have to do with the future which is what we're talking about in this thread? DU's comment seemed to imply he didn't think it was possible at all and people in this thread only thought it was because they "didn't program computers".
In five years even the poorest countries with be awash in iPhones. Probably better than the ones we have now. You read it here first. - a_girl_irlRight, you can get an old one for free without a contract already. And who said this stuff was going to be iPhone only? the Indian government is giving out android tablets for $35. Stuff like this would be great for rural health workers in the 3rd world, obviously.
The diagnostic accuracy for two dermatologists each with > 10 years experience in dermatology was 80%, with sensitivity of 91% and positive predictive value of 86%. Diagnostic accuracy rates for two senior registrars (each with 3–5 years experience) and six registrars (each with 1–2 years experience) were 62% and 56%, respectively.So a doctor with just a few years of study only does a little better then chance. I'd be willing to bet that the algorithms out there today can do better then 62%. Almost certainly better then 56%.
In a prospective multicenter study, investigators compared the diagnostic performance of MelaFind with that of a group of experienced dermatologists. This study included 1383 patients with 1632 evaluated pigmented lesions, including 127 histologically confirmed MMs (45% in situ melanomas; median Breslow thickness of invasive lesions: 0.36 mm). The MelaFind device missed only 2 melanomas (125 of 127 detected), yielding a 98.4% sensitivity. This compared favorably to the average biopsy sensitivity (78%) of the dermatologists. When factoring in borderline melanocytic lesions (atypical melanocytic proliferations, high-grade or severely dysplastic nevi), the sensitivity of MelaFind remained an impressive 98.3%. For pigmented lesions that had been referred for evaluation to rule out MM, MelaFind had an average diagnostic specificity of 9.9%, superior to the clinicians' average specificity (3.7%). Unfortunately, the device also has a high false-positive rate, with one study showing that pigmented lesions identified by MelaFind as being suspicious turned out not to be melanomas in up to 15% of cases.
Actually, he saidIt wasn't one statement, he posted seven different comments, three of which I quoted in my reply. All of them seemed to be saying "this is a bad idea/ pointless" When he said "It takes years of research and testing to look for these things" he was talking about the kinds of tests we currently do not the hypotheical device.
It's going to take years of research and testing to look for those things.
Seems like it's you that's misreading his statement.
I guess what I'm saying is it seems to be solving the wrong problem. It isn't going to make healthcare more widespread in poor communities, for instance, because they can't afford iPhones anyway. If a doctor carries one in, couldn't s/he already do these tests? The problem is not lack of sensors. The problem is also not a lack of access to sensors. The problem is a lack of access to *knowledge* (in the form of doctors and nurses).He didn't say "over the next 3-5 years" or whatever. Only one of his comments mentioned any kind of time frame.
If you built an ultrasound engine and transducer that did work without gel or direct contact, you'd probably have a system that was so powerful that the FDA would never approve it, because it could cook a patient's tissue. Also, ultrasound technicians do not interpret the images they capture. Doctors do that.The point is, in the future, computers will do it. Also, cooking something with sound seems rather difficult, as people expose themselves to hundreds of watts of audio and come out uncooked (if hard of hearing) all the time.
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posted by DU at 7:31 AM on February 2 [2 favorites]