UPDATED 10:52 EDT / JULY 05 2013

Smart Body: iPhone Add Ons to Monitor + Diagnose Your Health

Some people seem to have their smartphones surgically attached to their hands.  It’s the first thing they reach for when they wake up, and the last thing they put down when they go to bed.  If you ask these people why they’re so fixated on their phones, many will cite a popular fitness app that’s monitoring their heart rate, or how many calories they’ve burned, or steps taken.

But did you know that your smartphone can serve a higher purpose?  It can analyze if you’ve had enough alcohol for the evening, check for an ear infection, monitor your blood sugar, get your ECG, or even take your temperature.  Yes, your smartphone can do all that, but you need external attachments or a companion device to gather this additional data.

Here’s the latest in smartphone attachments that will further your healthy quest for fitness data.

AliveCor smartphone ECG

This device is a casing for your iPhone 4, 4S or 5 with two metal strips at the back.  These strips can take a person’s ECG.  All a person needs to do is pick up their iPhone fitted with the AliveCor, and the fingers of each hand should touch the metal strips with the iPhone Home button on the right side.  AliveCor will take your heart rate and ECG in  30-second rhythm strips that are stored securely in the cloud and the device itself.   AliveCor recently became a part of  Health eHeart which is a decade-long heart study to gather blood pressure and heart rate data from over one million participants.

Scanadu

This company is developing devices to help people monitor health, even at home.  It has three products slated for release:  the Scout, which  being crowd-funded on Indiegogo, would help people monitor their vital signs which includes their temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygenation, ECG reading, blood pressure and even a person’s stress level;  Scanaflo is a urine test kit that would allow people to monitor their health at home; and the third unnamed device, which will probably allow people to take blood samples at home, will be beneficial for people with diabetes or metabolic disorders.

iBGStar

This little device attaches to your iPhone or iPod Touch to help you monitor your blood sugar level, great device for people with diabetes.  The device integrated with the iBGStar Diabetes Manager to automatically sync data when connected to your iOS device.  The app tracks glucose, insulin and carbs, and charts individualized glucose patterns over time.  You can share your data to your healthcare provider easily.

On a side note, researchers from the North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Children’s Hospital Boston, have developed a system to help insulin-dependent patients manage their condition.  The insulin nanoparticles are injected to a patient and will respond to changes in blood sugar level and release insulin accordingly.

BACtrack Mobile Breathalyzer

This device connects to your iPhone via Bluetooth.  All you need to do is blow on the device, like the normal breathalyzer, and the result gets transmitted to your device.  This way, you’ll know if you’re above or below the legal driving alcohol level.  This gadget can help save lives, as responsible individuals would not drive if they blow above the legal limit.

CellScope

CellScope has two devices to help people analyze their ear or skin.  The CellScope Oto aims to help pediatricians increase the standard of care by creating a visual history of the middle ear and allow parents to save time by allowing ear infections to be diagnosed and treated remotely.  Which means parents can now keep an eye on their kids’ ears, send the data to their pedia, and help detect infections earlier so they can be readily managed.

The other iPhone attachment is the CellScope Derm enables patients to capture and transmit high-magnification, diagnostic-quality images of the skin from the privacy and convenience of their own homes.  This is useful for people who are too shy to see their dermatologist in person because a rash or skin abnormality is somewhere in their nether regions.

The mobility and usability of smartphones makes it a perfect tool to monitor a person’s health.  They’re always there when you need them and it’s easy to make attachments for them because all you need is an app to tie the two together.  It’s amazing what companies have developed around the smartphones, makes you excited for what the future holds.

Make sure you check out our collection of Smart Devices and Smart Gadgets on Springpad!

 


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