14 DAY TRIAL // If you live in an area with decades-old technology, no hospitals, or laws against the LGBT community, it might be tough to diagnose yourself for sexually transmitted infections.
To enable virtually anyone to screen themselves in 15 minutes flat using just their smartphone, researchers at Columbia University have developed an app that works with a dongle to analyze a small blood sample and offer a nearly-instant reading.
A revolutionary diagnosis device
The researchers say they haven’t really invented anything new, but merely shrunk down the equipment normally found in a lab, and crammed it inside the dongle that connects to the smartphone.
The accompanying app merely acts as an interface between the user and the hardware, allowing him / her to interpret and understand the screening process. Such a device could be made available for a staggeringly-low $34 (€30).
In addition to looking for signs of HIV (the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS) the solution designed by Columbia University also detects other STIs (sexually transmitted infections), such as syphilis.
One of the people behind the invention, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Samuel Sia, said: “It replicates all the things that a lab-based robot would do. We’re actually not really developing a totally new way of doing things, but instead we’re just replicating what lab-based instruments do, step by step.”
Reduced mortality rates, less infections
It doesn’t take an expert to assess the potential of a pocket-sized diagnosis tool for STDs (sexually transmitted disease). You not only find out in due time whether or not you’ve caught something, but you also reduce the risk of giving it to someone else, therefore reduce the risk of spreading the disease.
As with any type of disease, an early diagnosis greatly increases the chances of healing. Sia said he and his fellow researchers are hoping to roll out a commercial version of the product in a few years.” By then, its size will have surely shrunk down even further.
