If every home were equipped with the latest in cancer detection technology, it’s obvious that cancer fatality rates would reduce significantly across the board. Let any oncologist tell you: early detection is critical in defeating cancer. So often it’s the lack of this immediate attention that makes the fight against this bitter foe a long, arduous, and sometimes terminal journey. If only more people could be made aware earlier of what’s happening inside their bodies, countless lives could be saved.
While you probably can’t count on the healthcare science industry to start a cancer screening subsidy for home use anytime soon, you could be seeing a breakthrough in personal cancer detection capability.
Well, via your smartphone itself might still be a few years off, but the road there is mapped courtesy of researchers at Harvard Medical School in Boston. They’ve been experimenting with a way to perform what is essentially bedside cancer screening through a shrunken down version of a large scale MRI scanner installed into a smartphone. Sampling only a relatively few number of cells as opposed to larger radiation dosages inherent with traditional screening technology, the palm-fitting device has the potential to provide revolutionary cancer screening access to people within a few years.
Kinks remain, but the science is sound. This is not just the case with cancer prevention, either. Swiss researchers have recently found a way to monitor the hearts of patients by plugging non-invasive electrodes into the headphone jack of a smartphone. The data collected is computed into a user-friendly interface providing individuals with up-to-the-minute information on their heart health. In the event of an anomaly, the person’s doctor is alerted. Potentially, in the event of any kind of healthcare emergency detected through the science of a smartphone or smartphone-like device, first responders could be immediately notified as well.
But the future of home cancer detection most certainly resides in the science of the small pocket-sized devices we’re already using everyday. Eventually these devices will include ways for people to monitor their bodies 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Not only will cancer fatality rates lower due to a shorter gap between cancer appearing and detection, but an array of other easy-to-avoid yet all to common medical maladies will also be knocked out due to this impressive improvement in self-preservation. Forget the MRI; soon you might be getting treated with an HTC.