Dr PC will see you now

In recent years, an unprecedented explosion in personal technology has transformed how we live and work.

Now the same is happening to healthcare. In labs across the world, the blind are seeing again for the first time in years, the disabled are beginning to walk again, and everything from wheelchairs to robotic limbs are being controlled by thought alone.

The diagnosis and monitoring of disease is also set to undergo its own revolution with devices that, while they may not match Star Trek’s tricorder just yet, will come very close to it by enabling GPs to diagnose a wide range of serious diseases in the surgery.

Information taken directly from biosensors worn by patients will also provide GPs and other healthcare professionals with an up-to-the-minute medical history, enabling better and faster diagnoses.

Healthy people are already reaping the benefits of technology designed to keep them in the gym, having fun while they exercise, and we can look forward to devices that will soon turn the humble mobile phone into something that protects us against everything from sunburn to carbon monoxide poisoning.

In this feature, we’ll explore some of the technologies you’ll see in the coming years, and some that have already made an impact.

15-minute diagnosis
When Star Trek’s Dr ‘Bones’ McCoy waved his medical tricorder over a patient, it told him instantly what was wrong and, more importantly, what to do about it. Like so much Star Trek technology, the writers created the tricorder to move the story along in a believable, but convenient, way. Science, however, has an uncanny knack of catching up with fiction. For example, Elisha, a project by researchers at the University of Leeds, promises to bring the idea of a tricorder closer to reality.

Still under development, Elisha will be able to detect a range of diseases and conditions – from prostate and ovarian cancer, to stroke and even multiple sclerosis – in around 15 minutes. “We believe this is the next-generation diagnostic testing,” said Dr Paul Millner of the Faculty of Biological Sciences at Leeds University, who leads the Elisha team. “We can now detect almost anything faster, cheaper and more easily than the current accepted testing methodology.”

When you suffer disease or injury, your body mounts an immune response. Tell-tale chemicals enter the bloodstream, and these can be analysed to discover what’s wrong. Presently, however, a blood sample has to be sent away to a hospital pathology lab, where special antibody tests indicate the presence or absence of different diseases.

The approach taken by the Elisha team is to impregnate a nanoscale surface with a range of such antibodies, to which a sample of urine or blood is then introduced. When gently electrified, these highlight the presence or absence of different chemicals indicating disease. The technology is so sensitive it can detect a mere picogram of a chemical in a millilitre of fluid, meaning that non-medical versions will also be useful in a range of roles.

Millner believes it’s only a matter of time before such instant diagnostic tools become commonplace: “Elisha will eventually be seen by hospital beds as a novel ‘point of care’ diagnostic technology, as well as providing on-site, instant testing for pollution of food and water, or for GM contamination.”

Healthvault
Obtaining a diagnosis in a few minutes will undoubtedly help save lives, but having a detailed medical history in future will also help to keep you from inadvertent harm.

US DNA testing company Genelex estimates that the fourth-largest cause of premature death is adverse reactions to medications, sometimes caused by a patient having an incomplete medical history.