Cellphones have long been touted as a way to bridge the developing world鈥檚 digital divide. Now doctors in remote hospitals might be able to use them to detect tumours.
Conventional imaging devices are too expensive for three-quarters of the world鈥檚 population. So Boris Rubinsky and colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a cheap imaging device based on a technology known as electrical impedance tomography.
Bone, muscles and diseased tissue such as tumours all conduct electricity differently. To spot these telltale differences, up to 256 electrodes are attached to the body and a voltage is applied. The current between them is then measured, and the information is sent from the electrodes to the cellphone via a USB cable. From there the data is sent via text message to a remote server, where it is processed to create an image of the tissue, in which differences in resistance caused by tumours show up as different colours. This is sent back to the doctor鈥檚 cellphone for analysis ().
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鈥淎 patient in the foothills of the Himalayas can be scanned and diagnosed, using software in Mumbai,鈥� says Rubinsky. 鈥淭he doctor can use his own cellphone and doesn鈥檛 need to be an expert in imaging.鈥�
Rubinsky admits the images are not as detailed as those produced by other techniques. 鈥淏ut you should be able to see a tumour of about 1 centimetre in diameter, and that is enough.鈥� He says the system could also be adapted to generate ultrasound images or X-rays.
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