BW: iPhone Spurs New Developments in Medicine

by , 1:05 PM EDT, April 30th, 2008

The new uses for a smartphone like the iPhone in medicine are being discovered, according to BusinessWeek on Wednesday. Cutting costs, remote diagnosis, and reducing medical errors are just some of the uses researchers have found.

Some medical machinery can be balky and expensive. Imaginative uses of more modest equipment combined with the display, processing, and communications ability of the iPhone can lead to better practices, according to University of California professor of bioengineering Boris Rubinsky.

In addition, some equipment is hard to ship to remote locations, hard to use, and spare parts can become a problem. However, with the proliferation of cell phone networks, it's getting easier to engage in remote medicine. "You go through India, anywhere, in the middle of the road, there's someone with a cell phone. A friend calls me from the jungles of Costa Rica," said Mr. Rubinsky. "I can see so many applications in which the cell phone becomes an integral part of a medical device. A cell phone can cut the cost of almost every [diagnostic] device."

For example, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh are working on basically the equivalent of OnStar help in cars, but for heart patients. The device can call 911 via cell phone if it senses that the person's heart is in trouble, report the details and even supply, via GPS, the location.

The marriage of RFIDs that can communicate with a cell phone are also being explored. Smart band-aid-like devices that contain a patient's allergy information and can communicate via a cell phone alert are being introduced in Europe this summer. It can even advise a nurse of a patients glucose levels if they get out of bounds. Life Record, a software company, is using the iPhone to allow doctors to view patient medical records.

The combination of small electronics, medical devices and smartphones inspired by the capabilities of the iPhone could dramatically change the practice of medicine in the near future.