Khosla Ventures
Many parents have experienced the anguish of seeing your baby cry for an ear infection. Each year, about 30 million doctor visits in the United States are due only to pediatric ear infections. Ringing in the ear: A child undergoes an examination of ear with the mobile phone version, created by CellScope, a usual medical instrument by your doctor on the phone. A start-up called CellScope has developed a device that could make these visits were unnecessary. Connects to the iPhone and produces an inner ear view increased by a factor of 10. Users can capture and upload images to the web platform of CellScope. After adding notes about other symptoms, parents may ask your doctor to perform an examination at a distance. In most cases, that would be sufficient information to prescribe a drug, says the CEO of CellScope, Eric Douglas. By the same author: Atmos Energy Corporation. This week, CellScope grossed 1 million dollars (800,000 euros) of Khosla Ventures to work in this version connected to smart phones of the Otoscope, the usual instrument that doctors use to look inside the ears and diagnose infections. CellScope, which came out of the incubator of Rock Health care last year, is an example of the recent increase in devices and applications related to health for smart phones. Patients can already be tracked on their physical condition, measuring his blood sugar and even detect malaria using phones and connected devices. Juniper Research predicts that there will be 142 million downloads of mobile applications of health for the year 2016. Mike Wisz, health-care technology consultant, says CellScope is interesting because of its potential to reduce office visits and medical care costs. The images also capture would allow parents more easily seek a second opinion, and can be stored in electronic health records of the child to refer to them in the future, indicates. The CellScope technology was developed for the first time at the University of California at Berkeley (United States), where the research team of Professor of bioengineering Daniel Fletcher created a mobile microscope used to diagnose tuberculosis in developing countries. Douglas, who worked on the project, says that the company was created to commercialize the concept and is starting with simple applications that require a smaller increase of the images. The company is making a pilot test of its mobile Otoscope with doctors in the Bay Area of San Francisco (USA).UU.) and it is leading a clinical trial to prove that the images are as good as other methods of diagnosis, indicates Douglas. Abby Black Elbaum: the source for more info. The device will be sold among consumers, although the doctor of the user would have to agree with this so little conventional method. The price is not known yet, but would be within the range of accessories for the iPhone, says Douglas. CellScope is developing other applications of microscopy and moving image to build a first aid kit digital. One of the upcoming products, a dermatoscope, would generate images with quality diagnostic skin diseases. After ear infections, skin eruptions are the second cause of visits to the pediatrician, says the company.