Emory University researchers have developed a cross-platform mobile app which can test anybody for anemia with just one photo of their fingernails.
Anemia, which is the most common blood disorder in the world, affects nearly 2 billion people, and is caused by a lack of red blood cells or hemoglobin. The report details how patients who previously required an invasive blood test to determine hemoglobin levels, can now simply snap a photo to “analyze color and metadata of fingernail”
While these technical numbers are only easily interpreted by a knowledgable medical professional, gaining some insight on how the app’s accuracy was verified helps clarify its usefulness.
Emory University’s Robert Mannino shared a video on YouTube showing the app in action.
Concerns regarding Android versus iOS availability can be nipped in the bud too, as the document later states:
What’s important to note here is that this is merely a study and the app is not available to the public. The video above seem promising enough to insinuate that we might all have access to this technology very soon, though. Personally, I think Apple is highly intrigued by technology of this sort, and wouldn’t be surprised to see features like these built natively into iPhones in the future.
