Test your liver... with your phone
Dial-a-Doc
If you’re worried that your liver could be in for some punishment this Christmas, then don’t. Just reach for your mobile phone and check its health on the fly.
The mobile phone liver sensor
Boffins from the Korean Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology have created a liver health senor that connects to your mobile phone. Technical details are still sketchy, but it apparently reminds users when it’s time to measure their liver health, which it does by checking two enzymes in your bloodstream. A picture leaked online shows the sensor connected to a handset via its power charger port.
The sensor then uses the handset to send its findings to a participating hospital for analysis, from where a doctor presumably gives you a call if, well, it’s time to cut back on the Egg Nog and Brandy shots.
The institute’s researchers are believed to have already filed a patent application in Korea and abroad, so it may not be long before we’re all waiting for that dreaded call from the doctor.
COMMENTS
I do this all the time ... (well, sort of)
"The institute’s researchers are believed to have already filed a patent application in Korea and abroad"
Being diabetic, I have to keep an eye on my blood sugar levels and I use a device not unlike the one touted here. Granted, it doesn't plug into my phone or send the results to my doctor (thank Ghod!) but my glucose monitor does store up to 30 days worth of results for download/analysis/whatever. In fact, the whole phone+widget assemblage looks like an oversized blood glucose monitor.
I suspect the patent will be doomed to failure - likely as not, it'll work on the same kind of principles that glucose monitors use (and larger scale equipment used for liver function tests etc.), and IMO there's absolutely nothing new or revolutionary about sending the results so obtained by SMS.
Nice idea, just nothing new.
What's the point?
Why bother sending the results to a doctor, just use the processing capability of the phone to work out the result and display a message to stop drinking. (or to give the liver more punishment?)
All your DNA are belong to us......
It's all a Korean cloning scam - brings a whole new perspective to your name on a grain of rice...
