Medical team uses iPhone in research to detect cancer and gets 99% accuracy

If there is an area that Apple boasts of contributing to improvements to that of health. Of course, the company bets its chips on Apple watch to be the device responsible for helping to improve people's quality of life. This time, however, the device responsible for aiding health research was the iPhone.

Washington State University announced on its website that a research team led by the assistant professor Lei Li has succeeded in turning Apple's smartphone into a low-cost “portable lab” capable of delivering the same quality as any other lab.

Illustration of a smartphone as a spectrometerIllustration of a smartphone as a spectrometer

Li says the portable lab can detect Interleukin-6 (IL-6) a tumor marker found in lungs, prostates, livers and breasts by examining the samples by a spectrometer. This structure, however, is not innovative; Indeed, the great differential of creation is the ability to analyze up to eight different samples at one time. In this way, the diagnostic accuracy rate reaches 99%!

The tests were performed on an iPhone 5, but the teacher reported that he is working on an adjustable unit so that it can fit any other smartphone.

iPhone spectrometer

The research has already gone from testing to use in real situations. The efficiency and portability of the invention are such that, besides being able to be used in hospitals and clinics in the United States that have a large number of samples and few laboratories, the professor says that it can be used by doctors working in remote places and They can't carry entire labs with them.

This would allow technology to be taken to places where cancer diagnosis has not advanced much or is too expensive. An initiative that will surely save many lives!

(via 9to5Mac)