A Smartphone-Enabled Device that Detects Cancer in Under an Hour

[YosemiteSam]

If you’re a smartphone naysayer, here’s some news that might make you drink the Kool-Aid along with nearly half of Americans: of the 652 app applications submitted just to Apple every day, an increasing number of healthcare-related apps are starting to trickle in that could actually help save lives. An exciting example comes from the scientists at the Center for Systems Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital that have knocked it out of the park by integrating a microNMR device that accurately detects cancer cells to a smartphone. Though just a prototype, this device enables a clinician to extract small amounts of cells from a mass inside of a patient, analyze the sample on the spot, acquire the results in an hour, and pass the results to other clinicians and into medical records rapidly. How much does the device cost to make? $200. Seriously, smartphones just got their own Samuel L. Jackson-esque wallet.

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[joseephuss]

So the phone will be able to detect the cancer cells it causes in a person.