An app to check your cholesterol is the latest way smartphones are evolving into medical devices

On mobile phones, health, and fitness are rapidly becoming big business. The latest idea? A concept from researchers at Cornell which demonstrates how your phone could be used to check your cholesterol levels, no visit to the lab required. In a paper published in the medical technology journal Lab on a Chip, the researchers describe a simple test strip that users drop a bit of blood on. You then snap a photo of this strip (using a special flash diffuser to correct for light levels) and use an app to analyze the results. Because blood changes colors ever so slightly based on the amount of cholesterol in it, the app can determine your cholesterol level through a simple image analysis of the picture of the test strip. That's good news, since Yahoo! reports that up to 60 percent of American adults suffer from high cholesterol. Presumably a good portion of them aren't even aware of it and don't want to undertake the hassle of a doctor visit. As Bloomberg Businessweek notes in the above story, cholesterol testing is hardly the first example of a medical or health-related technology being developed into app form. Today's app-based heart rate monitors make old-fashioned finger clips look like medieval gear, and you can now download an app that diagnoses what's wrong with your sleep patterns. Expectant mothers can get a daily report on their fetus's development, and that's not even mentioning the scads of apps that let you manage your workout and diet routines. Medical related... Continue reading at 'PC World'

[ PC World | 2013-12-21 00:00:00 UTC ]

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Art Check: A Broadway Couple Shoots NYC

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-05-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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comScore Launches Smartphone Metrics Service

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[ Folio Magazine | 2012-05-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Why Publishers Don't Like Apps

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[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-05-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Art Check: Harvey Pekar, Back From the Dead

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-05-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Web Journey Complete, FT Switching Off iOS App

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[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-05-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Art Check: Gursky's Extraterrestrial Perspective

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-04-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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3M launches its Cloud Library ebook lending service, hardware and apps in tow

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[ Engadget | 2012-04-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Profile creates interactive Frankenstein app

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[ The Bookseller | 2012-04-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Stuff | 2012-04-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Satiric iPad App Punch Wants You To Laugh, Play, Pay

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[ Fast Company | 2012-04-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-04-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tablet Reading Apps Zite, Pulse Strike Publisher Deals

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[ AllThingsD | 2012-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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RR Donnelley Invests $2.5 Million in Catalog App

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[ Folio Magazine | 2012-04-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Aquafadas: Easy to Build Interactive Apps

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-03-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kindle app for Android updated with Send-to-Kindle functionality, lets you sling documents to green little robots everywhere

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[ Engadget | 2012-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Engadget | 2012-03-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Marvel announces augmented reality app, exclusive digital comics at SXSW

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[ Engadget | 2012-03-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Making ebooks even more kid-friendly: the Storia reading app from Scholastic

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[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-03-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Parade Launches App To Enhance Content Offerings

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[ Folio Magazine | 2012-02-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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