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Are Smartphones Starting a Boom In DIY Medicine?

Posted by timothy on from the say-aaaaaah-and-hit-send dept.

An anonymous reader writes "How are you using smartphones and other portable devices to take charge of your medical care? The NY Times has an article about attachments to the iPhone for tracking blood sugar and blood pressure. There are also glorified web cams that take pictures of your ear drum, teeth or eyes to save you a trip to the doctor's. Some people are tracking the changes in their moles with an iPhone App. Is this the beginning of Med 2.0?" Odd as it sounds, I was able to be more quickly and reliably diagnosed with Lyme disease last fall because I'd taken some pictures on my phone of the lesion I'd wrongly thought was the result of a spider bite. Any camera would have worked, but I had my camera-equipped phone with me, rather than any other kind.

9 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. Self-Treatment =/= Doctor by PessimysticRaven · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As long as people don't like/trust doctors, or paying the high bills, there will always be serious interest in self-diagnosis. Smartphones do nothing to add to it, aside from allowing a portable search engine to plug symptoms into. Instant gratification.

    On the plus side, this'll likely increase the amount of reported deaths caused by self-treatment, because "ZOMG Technology is EVOL!"

    --
    Consistency is only a virtue if you're not a screw-up.
    1. Re:Self-Treatment =/= Doctor by ackthpt · · Score: 4, Insightful

      As long as people don't like/trust doctors, or paying the high bills, there will always be serious interest in self-diagnosis. Smartphones do nothing to add to it, aside from allowing a portable search engine to plug symptoms into. Instant gratification.

      On the plus side, this'll likely increase the amount of reported deaths caused by self-treatment, because "ZOMG Technology is EVOL!"

      It's a boon to hypochondriacs - they'll find a horrible ailment for every ache, pain, disorientation, discoloration, etc.

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    2. Re:Self-Treatment =/= Doctor by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yet. I predict from this trend will rise cheap, bluetooth enabled medical sensors of various types.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    3. Re:Self-Treatment =/= Doctor by couchslug · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "As long as people don't like/trust doctors"

      Nice corporate line. My wife had Lyme and went from doctor to doctor before they finally referred her to specialist care which confirmed what she'd already diagnosed!

      Doctors are not interchangeable, have a tiny slice of time to work with patients (your auto mechanic has more time per car by far!), and are under constant pressure.

      Computer-aided diagnosis can be a huge boon to a public who can't afford medical care or who are under-served by existing options.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    4. Re:Self-Treatment =/= Doctor by Pope · · Score: 4, Funny

      Suicide by trebuchet!

      --
      It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
    5. Re:Self-Treatment =/= Doctor by Belial6 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Not to mention that the vast majority of illness/injury are already self diagnosed and self treated. Can you imagine if every time you got a headache or your kid scratched themselves while playing, you rushed off to the doctor?

  2. I typed in my symptoms and it says by shoppa · · Score: 4, Funny

    I typed in my symptoms and my iPhone says that I have:

    Internet Connectivity Problems

    Oh no, do I have to go to the emergency room??!!!!?

  3. Awareness by trimpnick · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think that while documentation is already freely available for a lot of medical conditions, integrations into a single device (that you carry all the time with you) can surely raise awareness about such documentation. I don't think that people wanting to know more about a medical condition is necessarily evil or a sign of not trusting doctors. Has the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge's sake completely disappeared? "Self-medication" may well result in misdiagnosis and possible complications by not going to the doctor in some cases, but on the flip side, it might encourage others to go consult trained professionnals because they think they might not have something as benign as they first thought. Furthermore, there is a lot of developement in completely automated tools for diagnosing infections, genetic mutations, etc which might reduce the need for some medical consultation within the next 5-10 years.

  4. Re:Assisted Suicide App by element-o.p. · · Score: 4, Funny

    No, that just makes you want to commit suicide. It doesn't actually help you accomplish the task ;)

    --
    MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?