Glen Stream of the American Academy of Family Physicians. "Technology sometimes evolves faster than we're ready for it," cautioned Dr. The question: Do smartphone devices really work well enough for the average patient and primary care doctor to dive in, or are early adopters just going for the cool factor? Many of the tools cost $100 to $200, there's little public sales information yet and it's not clear how insurers will handle the fledgling trend. In March, prominent San Diego cardiologist Eric Topol tweeted "no emergency landing req'd" when he used his smartphone EKG to diagnose a distressing but not immediately dangerous irregular heartbeat in a fellow airplane passenger at 30,000 feet.Īnd the University of California, San Francisco, hopes to enroll a staggering 1 million people in its Health eHeart Study to see whether using mobile technology, including smartphone tracking of people's heart rate and blood pressure, could help treat and prevent cardiovascular disease. This mobile medicine also might help doctors care for patients in new ways. Diabetics can plug the iBGStar into the bottom of an iPhone and check blood sugar on the go without carrying an extra device. "We wanted to make sure they have all the right tools available in their pocket" is how Joseph Flaherty of AgaMatrix describes his company's tiny glucose monitor. But companies are rapidly developing miniature medical devices that tap the power of the ubiquitous smartphone in hopes of changing how people monitor their own health.
If this sounds like a little too much DIY medical care, well, the idea isn't to self-diagnose with Dr. Plug in a few more devices and you could have photos of your eardrum (Look, no infection!) and the back of your eye, listen to your heartbeat, chart your lung function, even get a sonogram.
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