Bloodstream sensor potential heralded

Researchers are developing sensors that could be embedded in the bloodstream, potentially leading to a leap forward in detecting heart disease or cancer, it was revealed yesterday.

A team from California’s Stanford University is working on the project, the Mobile World Congress heard in Barcelona.

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“Doctors only get diagnoses right about 50% of the time,” said Rick Valencia, general manager of Qualcomm Life.

“The reason for the poor success rates is that they suffer from a lack of basic, actionable information.

“Mobile health technology, like mobile sensors, which could be inserted on patches, on watches or straps, on you, or in you — in the bloodstream — provides the health industry with enormous potential to improve medical care for patients, and to preempt serious illness.

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“The mobile sensors being tested at Stanford University could swim around a person’s blood system, helping specialists to identify signals that might result in heart attacks, strokes, and in some cases the onset of cancer, and to help in telling specialists what to do next.”

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Valencia claimed the mobile phone will become critical in helping to manage medical care. He said the cost of genetic testing was dropping dramatically, which, added to the evolution of mobile sensors, would greatly help in improving treatment, but added the medical industry was behind other sectors in take-up.

“You know more about the health of your car than you do about your own health. When it comes to your car, you know how much fuel you have, the air pressure in tires, whether you need to go for an oil change. Because there are intelligent sensors in your car, you can analyse data and action that data. At present, that’s not the case when it comes to your own body. Most of us are in the dark about our own wellbeing,” he said.

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Mobile health solutions can play a critical role in alleviating illness. According to Standard & Poor’s, 80% of health spending is on chronic disease such as cancer.

Arjen Swank of Text to Change illustrated how mobile health technology is being used in Uganda, where an average of 53.1% of people have access to a mobile phone.

His firm helped in a radio campaign in which people were invited to reply by text message to the question: ‘Do you think a healthy person can have HIV?’ Swank said 67% of people got the answer wrong, but it opened up a communication line in which they could send out further questions, and motivated people to get tested.