Medium: Smartphone turns into medical diagnostic device with new technology

Medium highlighted the University of Cincinnati's research into point-of-care testing devices that can transmit test results directly to your doctor over a phone app.

UC College of Engineering and Applied Science professor Chong Ahn created a portable lab that uses a patient's saliva to test for malaria. The patient puts single-use plastic tab in his or her mouth and plugs it into the portable lab created to test for that particular infection. The device plugs into a smartphone and uses a custom app that UC developed to transmit results to the patient's doctor.

The study by Ahn and his graduate student, Sthitodhi Ghosh, was published in Nature journal Microsystems & Nanoengineering.

"This is the future of personal healthcare," Ghosh said.

While the device has applications for monitoring viruses or other diseases, Ahn said he sees potential in the field of mental health. Doctors could improve treatment if they had better long-term data on the stress hormones related to mental health, he said.

"My dream for the rest of my career at UC is to improve public and mental health by providing a new mobile health tool," Ahn said.

Read more about Ahn's research in UC News.

Featured image at top: UC engineering professor Chong Ahn, left, and graduate student Sthitodhi Ghosh demostrate their portable lab that plugs into a phone. Photo/Joseph Fuqua II/UC Creative Services