Trial was held in Rwanda.
By Dileep Thekkethil
BENGALURU: A report published by ‘Science Translational Medicine’ journal says that researchers have developed a smartphone peripheral costing around $34 that can successfully detect the presence of HIV and syphilis antibodies in patients.
According to the report, a trial held in Rwanda using the pocket-sized device produced laboratory-quality diagnostics, thus opening new possibilities for the detection and treatment of HIV and syphilis.
The attachment is made out of plastic and is sized same as a smartphone. It uses inexpensive disposable cartridges to load blood sample into the device along with a few chemicals that can detect the diseases.
According to the report, after inserting the cartridge into the device it will take 15 minutes to indicate the test result, which is automatically loaded into the smartphone. The device is an inexpensive replication of antibody-based medical examination popularly known as ELISA.
Samuel Sia, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia, who heads the team, said the test conducted on 96 people produced results as accurate as the results obtained using expensive lab tests.
Sabin Nsanzimana, the manager of the sexually transmitted disease division at Rwanda’s Ministry of Health said “This work is a proof of how technology can improve diagnosis and care, making it faster and simpler and cheaper without compromising the existing quality. You could see health care systems transformed in a very fundamental way if consumers can get precise measurements in a decentralized manner.”
The research team miniaturized the expensive ELISA technology and reduced power needs to integrate the attachment into a smartphone. The external peripheral uses the power from the audio jack of the smartphone, which is enough to detect and transfer data. According to Sia, One charge of an iPod Touch can power 41 tests.
He also added that “while we’ve been working on HIV and syphilis, this technology can be used for a variety of different applications, obviously. You could see health care systems transformed in a very fundamental way if consumers can get precise measurements in a decentralized manner.”