Microscope smartphone app aims at leukaemia diagnosis

Worawut Srisukkham, a PhD student at Northumbria University, Newcastle, is in the early stages of an e-health technology project aimed at developing the phone app for use by doctors in remote rural regions of developing countries.

It would work by taking a magnified image of a blood slide via a microscopic lens attached to the smart phone, with the app then screening for evidence of leukaemia.

Once created, Worawut’s smart phone app would enable rural doctors to analyse blood samples and refer patients to the city hospitals for treatment or further investigation.

‘Creating a phone app that can perform this screening role would be a low cost and efficient solution,’ Worawut said in a statement:

In 2012, approximately 352,000 children and adults around the world developed some form of leukaemia with a similar number dying from the cancer. Once his project is complete, Worawut hopes it will help to prevent unnecessary deaths from the disease caused by delayed diagnosis and treatment.