So, assuming the medical industry in the developed world gets out of the way (which I don't think is a foregone conclusion...it will take years, and possibly too many resources, to bring this to market in the US for a variety of good and bad reasons related to our regulatory environment), this is potentially one of the biggest revolutionary changes in healthcare in my lifetime.
This makes detection of both viral and bacterial infections possible with very low-cost tools; the fact that it can detect both makes me believe that detecting practically any infectious disease (or at least any infectious disease that has identified biomarkers in blood, or other easily obtainable bodily fluid) is on the near horizon.
One could buy this dongle, or one like it, and new diseases could be added via software upgrades (or by in-app purchases for the diseases you want to check for). This would potentially make doctors office visits obsolete for all but serious disease and chronic conditions. No need to go get checked for strep when you have a sore throat (of course, getting the antibiotics to treat it is another regulatory hurdle people in the US would face), lower need for cities and universities to provide STD testing, though treatment and education would still likely be within their perview. It allows better self-management of HIV, hepatitis, Lyme disease, and other chronic viral illnesses through more rapid and frequent testing.
Even if this doesn't evolve to include other types of detection, I would still happily pay several hundred dollars for a re-usable STD testing tool. I like to get tested every 6 months, but the hassle and cost of going to the doctor or Planned Parenthood or online testing lab is high (free or low cost testing is available, but you trade much more hassle for the lower cost...among my friends who get tested at the city health center, they usually spend an hour or two waiting, which is not a cost I'm willing to pay to save a couple hundred bucks). If I could test for HIV for free before every new partner (and, hell, make it a practice to test with every partner), that'd be fantastic.
Another article about this was posted a week or so ago to HN, but it didn't get any comments or many upvotes, which was disappointing, as this seems like entirely revolutionary technology, to me. And, it makes me want to go into medical tech because of how huge the potential is (but it would be an entirely new field for me, so my ability to be productive in it would take a while to develop).
This makes detection of both viral and bacterial infections possible with very low-cost tools; the fact that it can detect both makes me believe that detecting practically any infectious disease (or at least any infectious disease that has identified biomarkers in blood, or other easily obtainable bodily fluid) is on the near horizon.
One could buy this dongle, or one like it, and new diseases could be added via software upgrades (or by in-app purchases for the diseases you want to check for). This would potentially make doctors office visits obsolete for all but serious disease and chronic conditions. No need to go get checked for strep when you have a sore throat (of course, getting the antibiotics to treat it is another regulatory hurdle people in the US would face), lower need for cities and universities to provide STD testing, though treatment and education would still likely be within their perview. It allows better self-management of HIV, hepatitis, Lyme disease, and other chronic viral illnesses through more rapid and frequent testing.
Even if this doesn't evolve to include other types of detection, I would still happily pay several hundred dollars for a re-usable STD testing tool. I like to get tested every 6 months, but the hassle and cost of going to the doctor or Planned Parenthood or online testing lab is high (free or low cost testing is available, but you trade much more hassle for the lower cost...among my friends who get tested at the city health center, they usually spend an hour or two waiting, which is not a cost I'm willing to pay to save a couple hundred bucks). If I could test for HIV for free before every new partner (and, hell, make it a practice to test with every partner), that'd be fantastic.
Another article about this was posted a week or so ago to HN, but it didn't get any comments or many upvotes, which was disappointing, as this seems like entirely revolutionary technology, to me. And, it makes me want to go into medical tech because of how huge the potential is (but it would be an entirely new field for me, so my ability to be productive in it would take a while to develop).