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Home Medicine An app for tracking blood glucose levels?

An app for tracking blood glucose levels?

Photo showing use of a modified iPhone to check sodium and blood glucose levels.
Credit: Heather Clark and Matt Dubach

According to the Technology Review website published by MIT, using

a nanosensor “tattoo” and a modified iPhone, cyclists could closely monitor sodium levels to prevent dehydration, and anemic patients could track their blood oxygen levels.

A team at Northeastern University’s Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences is working to make this possible. They have created a specialized, invisible “tattoo” with nanosensors to detect sodium and glucose levels without breaking the skin. Once the tattoo is applied, the end user slips a case over their iPhone which contains “a nine-volt battery, a filter that fits over the iPhone’s camera, and an array of three LEDs that produce light in the visible part of the spectrum” which can read the tattoo. For now, researchers are exporting the data to a computer for analysis. In the future, it is hoped that an app can be developed to do this work.

No doubt diabetics and others who have to take their own blood samples on a regular basis would welcome an end to needle sticks! Do you have an idea for an app that could replace a regular and annoying medical procedure? Tell us about it!

(Thanks to the iMedicalApps blog for this information!)