Cell phone vs. HIV

While telemedicine is nothing new, improvements in telecommunications are creating the possibility of previously unthinkable innovations. The text message, as I've commented before, is becoming widely available in the developing world, and many organizations have taken note. A non-profit called One World launched a help service for questions on HIV in Kenya a few years ago. But researchers at the University of California - Los Angeles are proposing a truly heroic advance in the use of cell phones. The UCLA researchers propose using cell phones to diagnose diseases like HIV through a novel imaging technique (Hat tip: Giulio Quaggiotto). According to the article:

Ozcan envisions people one day being able to draw a blood sample into a chip the size of a quarter, which could then be inserted into a LUCAS-equipped cell phone that would quickly identify and count the cells within the sample. The read-out could be sent wirelessly to a hospital for further analysis.

No word, unfortunately, on the possible price tag for the proposed cell phone.