Developing technology makes it easier for us to overcome the barriers through early detection of diseases. For example, the smartphone application developed at the Zurich Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems enables the diagnosis of Parkinson's. Different applications focusing on the diagnosis of different diseases are also promising.
Unfortunately, there is no test to diagnose Parkinson's, which can be defined as a neurological regression disorder that affects one's movements. However, scientists continue conducting their research about the disease affecting more than 10 million people, and seen in about 60,000 people each year. The ability to prevent progression through early diagnosis makes these studies even more meaningful. It is a pleasing development that there are promising ones among these studies.
Scientists at the Zurich Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems discovered a new method for the detection of Parkinson's disease: Smartphone data… The developed system works like this: It examines how the person moves during tests prepared in a similar way to the smartphone application. These data are examined by artificial intelligence developed for this system and compared with Parkinson's symptoms. In this way, it is aimed to determine whether the user of the smartphone has Parkinson's disease. This system, through the data of the smartphone, examine the user's steps, voice, touch screen touches and memory. This system, developed by the Swiss scientists, works with an accurate diagnosis rate of 85 percent. This rate is better than the other methods with a 75 percent success rate. This justifies the hopes that smartphones can be used to diagnose diseases.
“Patients are quite willing”
Studies to enable the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease at an early stage are not limited to the Zurich Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems. Previously, prestigious John Hopkins University and the University of London had done similar work. John Hopkins University researcher Suchi Saria and her colleagues have also led to the development of a similar smartphone application a few months ago. In those months, Saria gave an interview to the well-known news agency Reuters, summarizing what they wanted to accomplish with what they called HopkinsPD: This also causes a variety of treatments. We could only measure these waves in our hospitals. However, this application allows the measurement of these fluctuations under all conditions. This development is exciting for all of us. Our patients are eager to try this practice.
Diagnosis with selfie
The use of smartphones or applications developed for these phones in the diagnosis of some diseases is becoming more common as technology advances. The project that the Russian scientists are working on makes it possible to diagnose some diseases with a selfie. The director of the project MeCare, introduced this year, Sergey Blintsov stated that Mecare can detect cardiovascular status by analyzing selfies to diagnose various diseases, including Parkinson's. Indicating that the diagnosis was correct by 95 percent, Blintsov said that they are planning to increase the number of diseases that the application can diagnose.
Studies are also carried out in Turkey
Researches that enable diagnosis of diseases by smart phones are also carried out in Turkey. The closest example is the application developed at Izmir Institute of Technology. With this software, mobile phones can detect diseases from the blood dripped on a special paper. These diseases include influenza, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HIV virus and cancer.
Assist. Prof. at Izmir Institute of Technology, Department of Chemistry. Assoc. Dr. Ümit Hakan Yıldız aims at diagnosis of diseases through a cost and time-efficent application called “BİORGB” that he developed with Hakan Berk Aydın, chemistry student, and Cihan Toklucu, computer engineering student. In the interview given to Anadolu Agency, Yıdız describes his system as follows: The medical device and trained personnel are needed to perform the test. Most importantly, it takes a certain time to see if there is a disease. This can be dangerous in cases such as epidemics. The system basically works like this: The patient’s blood is taken, the doctor drips the sample on a paper platform, takes some pictures after various reactions and gets the result through the application developed in our project.
