It’s medicine, Jim, but not as we know it: Scientists develop Star Trek-style diagnosis device
A team of British scientists have developed a Star Trek-style medical “tricorder” that they claim can diagnose diseases such as breast cancer in minutes.
The hand-held device analyses a patient’s blood, urine or saliva sample to indicate the presence of disease, much like the one used by Dr Leonard “Bones” McCoy in the sci-fi series.
Named the CliniHub, the gadget features a number of “ports” into which samples are placed. The samples react to chemicals inside the ports, which then change colour to denote diseases in the same way that a pregnancy test turns blue.
CliniHub has been developed by Cambridge Consultants in conjunction with US firm XenBio Fluidics, from California.
Patrick Pordage, from Cambridge Consultants, believes it could be “the future” for diagnosing diseases. He said: “We are very excited about the possibilities that CliniHub can bring to both patients and GPs across the world.
“Quicker analysis of diseases can only lead to better treatment and, in some cases, we hope it could save lives. This technology is a real breakthrough for us.
“The CliniHub could prove to be the future of disease diagnosis and we believe its applications will grow with time.”
The netbook-sized CliniHub is expected to cost about £650.
Its developers predict it will soon be able to detect up to 20 ailments and become commonplace in GP surgeries.
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