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Smartphones May Help Detect Diabetes:
"The ability to detect a condition like diabetes that has so many severe health consequences using a painless, smartphone-based test raises so many possibilities," said co-senior author Geoffrey H. Tison, MD, MPH, assistant professor in cardiology, of the Aug. 17, 2020, study in Nature Medicine. "The vision would be for a tool like this to assist in identifying people at higher risk of having diabetes, ultimately helping to decrease the prevalence of undiagnosed diabetes."
[...] In developing the biomarker, the researchers hypothesized that a smartphone camera could be used to detect vascular damage due to diabetes by measuring signals called photoplethysmography (PPG), which most mobile devices, including smartwatches and fitness trackers, are capable of acquiring. The researchers used the phone flashlight and camera to measure PPGs by capturing color changes in the fingertip corresponding with each heartbeat.
In the Nature Medicine study, UCSF researchers obtained nearly 3 million PPG recordings from 53,870 patients in the Health eHeart Study who used the Azumio Instant Heart Rate app on the iPhone and reported having been diagnosed with diabetes by a health care provider. This data was used to both develop and validate a deep-learning algorithm to detect the presence of diabetes using smartphone-measured PPG signals.
[...] "We demonstrated that the algorithm's performance is comparable to other commonly used tests, such as mammography for breast cancer or cervical cytology for cervical cancer, and its painlessness makes it attractive for repeated testing," said study author Jeffrey Olgin, MD, a UCSF Health cardiologist and professor and chief of the UCSF Division of Cardiology. "A widely accessible smartphone-based tool like this could be used to identify and encourage individuals at higher risk of having prevalent diabetes to seek medical care and obtain a low-cost confirmatory test."
Journal Reference:
Robert Avram, et al. A digital biomarker of diabetes from smartphone-based vascular signals. Nat Med (2020). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-1010-5
(Score: 5, Insightful) by stretch611 on Tuesday August 25 2020, @10:12AM (4 children)
People would benefit greatly by being diagnosed with diabetes if they are unaware that they have it. Even though it needs to be confirmed by a doctor, this is a great thing. The sooner someone learns about diabetes, the better off they will be.
However, it is a smartphone app. No person should EVER have personal data of any sort on their phone. Even if the phone app does not leak data... chances are that an API that was used to build that app will. Regardless, with the amount of exploits and thieves out there trying to infiltrate your phone and your data, this is a disaster waiting to happen.
You may think I am paranoid... but it really is not paranoia when they really are out to get you. Things in the past have used your GPS position and start advertising "ambulance chasing" lawyers when the GPS shows you in an emergency room during the prior week or two. GPS in fitness apps to see how far you walk/run have created heat maps of locations of army bases across the world due to the number of military personnel using them.
And even though it is likely to be illegal... if a prospective employer finds out that you have a disease like diabetes... (or any major disease) Good luck on getting hired. They don't want to pay the extra insurance money (many big companies are self-insured, those that are not have to pay with rates going up the more that health insurance is actually used.) They sure as hell don't want you to have the extra time off for Dr appointments... and likely you will not find out why you didn't get the job.
In addition, how many prospective ads will there be promoting some cure-all for diabetes will show up on your phone? (I see a ton of them for diabetes and other common conditions in my spam folder all the time.) And if you actually believe them, you lose your money paying for their hoax... and your disease gets worse because you don't actually get a real treatment.
Instead of using your phone irresponsibly and leaking out the information, do yourself a favor and just go and get a regular checkup with a doctor. If you have diabetes, s/he will notice and you will get treatment instead of being ignorant until it gets worse. In addition, seeing a doctor might find out about other problems you may or may not have that the phone can not diagnose.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 25 2020, @10:15AM (2 children)
Obviously, if you have a smart phone, you should just stab yourself to death and save the spammers some work.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 25 2020, @12:03PM (1 child)
I don't have a smart phone - land line (plus very occasional use of the SOs smart phone) for the win. Of course SO may need to stab herself...
(Score: 1) by crotherm on Tuesday August 25 2020, @05:57PM
everyone makes fun of my flip phone...
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Wednesday August 26 2020, @06:20AM
Not even a phone number?