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Mobile Medical Lab — the $10 Phone Microscope

Posted by timothy on from the repurposing dept.

kkleiner writes "Aydogan Ozcan of UCLA has developed a microscope attachment for a cell phone – turning the device into a sort of mobile medical lab. It's both lightweight (~38g or 1.5 oz) and cheap (parts cost around $10). The cellphone microscope can analyze blood and saliva samples for microparticles, red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and water borne parasites. Ozcan and his team have recently won three prestigious awards for the device: a Grand Challenges award from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (worth $100,000), the National Geographic Emerging Explorer award (worth $10,000), and the CAREER award from the National Science Foundation ($400,000). With these funds, Ozcan plans on starting case studies in Africa to see how the microscope can help revolutionize global medicine."

54 comments

  1. tricorder by Foofoobar · · Score: 5, Informative

    And the tricorder has been invented. Dammit Jim, I'm playing Tetris not examining blood cells!

    --
    This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
    1. Re:tricorder by JustinRLynn · · Score: 3, Funny

      Do both! Get a Dr Mario UI for it.

    2. Re:tricorder by Gilmoure · · Score: 2, Informative

      Check out these Lab-On-A-Chip setups. They're getting real close to chemical analysis tricorders.

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
  2. Amateur DIY diagnosis? by therealobsideus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Only thing I would be worried about is (if this hits a free market and consumers can buy the products for this) that people interested in diagnosing their own conditions would attempt self diagnosis. This may drastically help the NGOs in third world countries who are limited by funds to help treat those without access to even basic healthcare. Who knows, it may even bring down the cost of medical care here in the US. Hey, one can dream right?

    1. Re:Amateur DIY diagnosis? by sjames · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I would be more concerned about people who must either diagnose themselves or go undiagnosed being blocked by well meaning (or not) regulators that can't face up to the fact that more people suffer and die because of them than in spite of them.

    2. Re:Amateur DIY diagnosis? by elucido · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Only thing I would be worried about is (if this hits a free market and consumers can buy the products for this) that people interested in diagnosing their own conditions would attempt self diagnosis. This may drastically help the NGOs in third world countries who are limited by funds to help treat those without access to even basic healthcare. Who knows, it may even bring down the cost of medical care here in the US. Hey, one can dream right?

      As if that would be a bad thing? If someone knows something is wrong with them they can take necessary steps to prevent it from getting worse. Prevention saves money. I just got a blood test today in fact, if I could test my own blood and get the results immediately that would revolutionize everything.

      If you want to test yourself for STDs, test your liver, or check yourself for diabetes, you can do that in your living room. That's definitely better than paying money for that.

    3. Re:Amateur DIY diagnosis? by therealobsideus · · Score: 1

      I think I would still be concerned more of the habitual "WebMD" crowd, who are constantly checking to see if they have symptoms of some hideous disease or ailment and other forms of Hypochondriasis. The last thing the US health care system needs is people running to the ER because they saw a RBC on their $10 phone microscope and thought it was some sort of virus or bacteria.

    4. Re:Amateur DIY diagnosis? by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 1

      You go ahead and assume people are stupid and that's what you'll get.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    5. Re:Amateur DIY diagnosis? by therealobsideus · · Score: 1

      Not assuming stupidity, assuming irrationality.

    6. Re:Amateur DIY diagnosis? by DerekLyons · · Score: 1

      more people suffer and die because of them than in spite of them.

      ROTFLMAO.

    7. Re:Amateur DIY diagnosis? by musmax · · Score: 1

      Only thing I would be worried about is (if this hits a free market and consumers can buy the products for this) that people interested in diagnosing their own conditions would attempt self diagnosis.

      I do not need a priest to pray to God, I do not need a mechanic to service my car, I do not need a programmer to write my code and I do not need a doctor to diagnose my condition. In fact, if I could get rid of the doctor completely why wouldn't I - a well trained expert system running on a modern phone aught to out-diagnose any doctor, and if it can't today it won't be long until it can.

    8. Re:Amateur DIY diagnosis? by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 1

      Oh, a semantic dork. Good luck with that.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    9. Re:Amateur DIY diagnosis? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You say "semantic", but what you mean is "stop pointing out that I'm wrong!".

    10. Re:Amateur DIY diagnosis? by White+Flame · · Score: 1

      You can buy some cheap analog microscopes for under $20, and some digital ones in the $50 range too.

      This cell phone attachment is no more enabling of self-diagnosis than any prior available equipment, but it's easier to deploy to people in the field.

    11. Re:Amateur DIY diagnosis? by ChatHuant · · Score: 1

      a well trained expert system running on a modern phone aught to out-diagnose any doctor,

      Agreed: if you have an iPhone, you won't need a proctologist anymore!

    12. Re:Amateur DIY diagnosis? by abulafia · · Score: 1

      I get the complaint. And I do realize that hypochondriacs and their less obsessive "I feel bad, give me a pill" types eat an unfortunate amount of medical resources. But there is a pathological strain (excuse me) of thought in the medical community that holds that patients should stay completely medically ignorant, else they complicate the healing process. Some take this way too far (I'm sure many folks here have had an experience with a doctor that should really have become a vet), and turn it in to a weird combination of guild behavior information hoarding and personal ego trip. That really needs to be stamped out.

      Again, I'm not an anarchist on these things, but denying people the ability to investigate their own bodies because they didn't apprentice in the trade is wrong.

      --
      I forget what 8 was for.
    13. Re:Amateur DIY diagnosis? by skids · · Score: 1

      Medical marijuana. E-cigs. Yup, they'll probably try to ban this, too.

      What the inventor needs to do is find a non-medical use for it -- like checking your brewers yeast count or something -- to allow sale of the physical attachment. Then the medical software add-ons can easily evade regulation.

      --
      Someone had to do it.
    14. Re:Amateur DIY diagnosis? by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 1

      You say "semantic", but what you mean is "stop pointing out that I'm wrong!".

      Because irrationality is not a form of stupidity.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    15. Re:Amateur DIY diagnosis? by sjames · · Score: 1

      Call it an educational toy.

    16. Re:Amateur DIY diagnosis? by sjames · · Score: 1

      For those people, if it's not this, they'll easily find some other reason to believe they have a rare and fatal disease.

    17. Re:Amateur DIY diagnosis? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I would be more concerned about people who must either diagnose themselves or go undiagnosed being blocked by well meaning (or not) regulators that can't face up to the fact that more people suffer and die because of them than in spite of them.

      Indeed, throughout Africa and Asia the main health issue is government over-regulation of medical facilities.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  3. Roddenberry Estate C&D commencement in 3..2..1 by ground.zero.612 · · Score: 1

    Cuz you know, the flip phones already stole his TOS communicator design (patents?). Blatantly.

    I suppose this strangely named college kid has never even heard of Gene Roddenberry.

    --
    "Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
  4. Ozcan's RAZR by TempeNerd · · Score: 2, Funny

    When given the choice between several phone microscopes,
    whichever phone makes the simplest microscope is the one to use.

    1. Re:Ozcan's RAZR by spazdor · · Score: 1

      Hanlon's RAZR: Never attribute to hangups that which is adequately explained by dropped calls?

      --
      DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
    2. Re:Ozcan's RAZR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What does that have to do with microscopes?

  5. *twitch* by girlintraining · · Score: 3, Funny

    Ozcan plans on starting case studies in Africa to see how the microscope can help revolutionize global medicine.

    I think it already has, dude.

    --
    #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
    1. Re:*twitch* by copponex · · Score: 2, Insightful

      He's probably referring to that specific microscope at that particular cost.

      Kidney dialysis machines that are $100,000: great if you live in the west. Kidney dialysis machines that are $1,000: great if you live anywhere.

    2. Re:*twitch* by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      Then the correct article would have been "this" not "the".

    3. Re:*twitch* by copponex · · Score: 1

      I don't know. Let's call some ancient English professor and see if shortening "the cellphone microscope" to "the microscope" later in the same paragraph qualifies it for points off in some imaginary thesis.

      I imagine his response would be, "Well, if your audience is incapable of reading comprehension for more than a few sentences, I wouldn't bother in the first place."

    4. Re:*twitch* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This Ozcan has to go working for Gillette. Think about the marketing potential.

  6. Just bill $100 per use by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 0, Troll

    Just bill $100 per use

    1. Re:Just bill $100 per use by nametaken · · Score: 1

      Yeah great.

      "award from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (worth $100,000)" and With these funds, Ozcan plans on starting case studies in Africa to see how the microscope can help revolutionize global medicine.

      Not that you're one of them, but this is precisely where some tinfoil hat wearer comes out of the woodwork to remind us that the Gates Foundation only awards money with strings attached to boost the profits of med tech companies that they invest in. Nevermind that Ozcan gets to decide how he uses this, and ignore the countless millions gifted to libraries and art museums.

  7. Medical Usefulness Overstated? by swanzilla · · Score: 1

    Most data from body fluids is ascertained via chemical tests, not optical means. This thing would be killer for diagnosing leukemia, anemia, or malaria...but at the end of the day, this phone microscope suffers from the same limitations as microscopes in general do.

    I could see this being pretty useful in other realms. Material science, geology, forensics...

    --
    0 = 1 + e^(Alt something)
    1. Re:Medical Usefulness Overstated? by Antony+T+Curtis · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Sickle cell is relatively common in the African Continent. Along with malaria and other parasites (snails?) in areas where there is stagnant water. I think that a portable diagnostic microscope would be of great benefit since there are many conditions rampant in less developed nations that can be diagnosed by looking at the blood, especially if it is possible to transmit the picture to an expert for confirmation.

      --
      No sig. Move along - nothing to see here.
    2. Re:Medical Usefulness Overstated? by alexander_686 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I don't know how much this counts but....

      My wife is a veterinarian and they routinely do white cell counts, look for parasites in the stool, etc, I can't imagine that the human world is too far off.

    3. Re:Medical Usefulness Overstated? by wurp · · Score: 4, Informative

      Just to point out, sickle cell is common _because_ malaria is common. Having one copy of the recessive gene that causes sickle cell improves immune function against malaria.

      So malaria disproportionally killed people who didn't have the sickle cell gene before they bred.

  8. I think that was already patented ... by joelsanda · · Score: 1

    by Amazon, a few years back.

    --
    The Luddites were ahead of their time.
    1. Re:I think that was already patented ... by Capt.DrumkenBum · · Score: 1

      Amazon's one click diagnosis. (TM)

      --
      If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
  9. Damaging to education by liak12345 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Children in developing worlds will get the completely wrong picture about cellular biology.

  10. Can it detect semen stains in carpeting? by elrous0 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Because I'm not buying it unless it does.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Can it detect semen stains in carpeting? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Settling a dispute with the last person who hired you?

      (wow: captcha is "insert")

  11. i'll believe it when I can buy one by snooo53 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Sounds like an awesome gadget for $10 if that's what it actually ends up costing to manufacture. But it remains to be seen if anyone will actually be able to buy one of these anytime in the near future. Hopefully whomever produces these has more business sense than Negroponte and the OLPC group. By the way, where is my $100 laptop?

    --
    The sending of this message pretty much inconveniences everyone involved.
    1. Re:i'll believe it when I can buy one by Foofoobar · · Score: 1

      charity is not a business. It's a religion.

      --
      This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
  12. Re:Great for sexting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "-1, Troll"? I smell butthurt.

  13. Wait for it... by imgumbydamnit · · Score: 1

    AC troll complaining about government waste because of the $400,000 NSF award in 3... 2... 1...

    --
    To err is human. To arr is pirate.
  14. MIdichlorians? by butalearner · · Score: 1

    The first thing I thought of was testing for midichlorians. Then I had to remind myself that that movie doesn't exist.

    1. Re:MIdichlorians? by jd2112 · · Score: 1

      But that won't stop George Lucas from having his team of Sith Lawyers send Cease & Desist letters to them.

      --
      Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
    2. Re:MIdichlorians? by Sulphur · · Score: 1

      Is there an app for that? Sith and Desisth, Darth Belli, and of couse point and Sith.

  15. Good idea, but... by davmoo · · Score: 1

    From the summary"

    "Ozcan plans on starting case studies in Africa to see how the microscope can help revolutionize global medicine"

    Okay, if the goal is really to revolutionize global medicine, where's the parts list, schematic, and software download repository?

    --
    I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
  16. Time for an open source project. by elucido · · Score: 2, Interesting

    From the summary"

    "Ozcan plans on starting case studies in Africa to see how the microscope can help revolutionize global medicine"

    Okay, if the goal is really to revolutionize global medicine, where's the parts list, schematic, and software download repository?

    Imagine the power of open software, along with the hardware? The software could handle the diagnosis so that it's no longer amateur diagnosis. The software could track blood sugar levels, check all sorts of stuff to completely prevent diseases which are entirely preventable.

  17. The parts cost $10...... by thephydes · · Score: 1

    so I estimate that the final cost to the consumer will be somewhere in the region of $1000 - it is a "medical" device after all.

  18. Re:Roddenberry Estate C&D commencement in 3..2 by Gilmoure · · Score: 1

    Part of Roddenberry's deal with the tv studios was that any company that produced working tech similar to stuff on Star Trek would be allowed to use names like Tricorder and such.

    --
    I drank what? -- Socrates
  19. gotta love innovation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    just imagine when the socialist medical system gets put in place.... and healthcare in the us gets bogged down, or when doctors leave their career for better paying jobs, or even when local area facilities get shut down for cost reduction measures....

    this device could provide a method for a person with a smartphone/camera to easily uplink results to a brand new market that could develop ... those medical professionals who moonlight or bail out of the government run system to create an alternative solution to the future medical mess forced upon us.

    just think upload, pay with paypal, get a professionals diagnosis to aid in your own decision making process.
    gotta love innovation