For a couple of month’s my daughter had two blood tests done regularly.  They were very simple tests and yet each required a vial of blood drawn.  This required going to a testing place (hospital), checking in, reviewing insurance, waiting her turn and then the actual blood test.  It usually took 20-30 minutes.  The cost was $247 AFTER insurance.

The tests weren’t even diagnostic, just data point markers like taking your temperature at the doctor’s office for physical (even when you feel fine.)  Each test required a separate vial of blood as well.

This is definitely thinking that needs to be challenged …

Nokia Sensing Challenge

 THE CHALLENGE: TRANSFORMING PERSONAL HEALTH WITH SENSING

The Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGE is a $2.25 million global competition to accelerate the availability of hardware sensors and software sensing technology that individuals use to access, understand, and improve their health and well-being. Innovation in sensing is an important component to creating a means for appealing, usable, smarter digital health solutions.

The challenge was created in mind with helping developing countries with severely limited resources improve the health standard of care.  Some of the possibilities though are not so limiting.  We could all use these.

Readings from sensors can be used in many facets of health: to track the spread of disease, monitor our exposure to environmental factors, assess our mental state, and give us a complete picture of our state of being. Continuous monitoring through sensing can provide real-time readings as they happen and give us ongoing insight instead of just single point-in-time measurement. Software algorithms as well have the needed brain power to make perfect sense of mountains of data, revealing patterns of sickness and wellness never seen before. Some examples of sensing include:

• Speed the detection of cancer through the use of a highly sensitive electronic nose that detects the presence of early tumors and abnormal cell growth.

• Assess potential life-altering conditions with an ECG heart monitor connected to a mobile phone, making critical information instantly available to individuals and their healthcare providers.

• Discover patterns of behavior in an individual’s physical motion that predict the emergence of a disease or medical condition long before it presents itself.

• Reliably predict a woman’s fertility with a continuous, portable sensor that measures very subtle changes in body temperature, replacing the costly and invasive methods used today

• In a single exhaled breath collect the diagnostic markers for a range of diseases including asthma, diabetes, kidney disease, lung cancer and stomach ulcers.

• By scanning the inner eye measure the likelihood of stroke as part of a general retinopathy assessment that can indicate the presence of many other diseases.

And the Grand Prize Winner Is …

DNA Medicine Institute (DMI) developed the rHealth, which allows you to diagnose yourself with a pin prick blood test – not a blood vial.  The single drop of blood runs hundreds of tests with “gold standard accuracy.”

If that’s not enough, it provides a patch that transmits vitals wirelessly.  Where can I buy one?

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