Mobile phones helping doctors diagnose kids
Diagnosis by numbers: parents are starting to use phone cameras to record children's health problems for experts
Monday November 26 2007
The mobile phone is increasingly being used by doctors to help them in the diagnosis of illness. It is particularly useful in the case of children, whose parents can record their symptoms and then show them to a paediatrician.
Professor Denis Gill of Temple St children's hospital, Dublin, said he has already found static and video images of children, taken by parents, to be a useful diagnostic aid.
"Mobile phone cameras will undoubtedly be a useful diagnostic aid. Many GPs probably already know this," he pointed out.
He highlighted instances where it would be useful:
- Seizures: turning on the mobile video is probably not the first parental priority when faced with a fitting child.
"However, the images are potentially extremely useful in categorising seizures and distinguishing true seizures from other events," he said.
- Fleeting skin rashes: often, swollen lips, eyes, and skin, have regressed by the time some children are seen by doctors.
- Children's behaviours: analysis of home videos of children diagnosed with aut-ism in the second year of life already reveals evidence of dev-elopmental delay before parents appreciate this.
"Abnormal behavioural patterns and rituals can be seen and appreciated," said Professor Gill in Irish Medical News.
- Snoring at night or restless sleep: visual images will help in deciding if the patient needs to be referred to a specialist.
"I am in no doubt that par-ents will increasingly photo-graph acute events on their mobile phone and expect GPs and paediatricians to view them.
"I believe we should encourage the practice, and assemble teaching collections for our students and trainees," he added.
Camera phones are one of the fastest-growing segments of the digital camera market and the quality is improving all the time.
Poor photographic tech-nique can affect the image you end up with.
As with all digital photo-graphy, the steadier your phone when taking your shot, the clearer your final image will be.
- Eilish O'Regan
