Doctor in the house?

Citation

Loughlin, C. (2005), "Doctor in the house?", Sensor Review, Vol. 25 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/sr.2005.08725daa.001

Doctor in the house?

Our theme for this issue is “Medical Sensors” and this represents a modest departure from our normal, more industrial fare. However, as sensors in general become “smarter” and are fabricated using technologies previously the domain of the semiconductor industry, so the opportunities for extending our products into new areas become available.

Medical sensors or more specifically biosensors are concerned with the measurement of biological functions. Glucose level measurement is a good example of a technology that has now evolved into handheld and even disposable sensors. In this case with a primary role of helping sufferers handle diabetes. It is also a major industry in itself.

There is currently a trend towards self-help and self-diagnosis in many medical fields. In the UK we have an online and telephone service operated by our national health service which provides a question and answer “expert system” style approach to diagnosing ailments. This does not stop people visiting their doctor, but can help minimise unnecessary visits while at the same time perhaps encouraging people to talk to a computer about problems that they may be too embarrassed to mention to a person.

This self-help philosophy extends to glucose sensing, pregnancy testing, iron deficiency, temperature and blood pressure to name but a few. With the medical services being already severely overloaded it makes a lot of sense for this trend to be encouraged so that the responsibility for the healthcare burden is spread between doctors and the patients themselves.

In the UK we also have a major problem in the form of MRSA which is a nasty (often fatal) organism that people generally only succumb to while in hospital where they are in close proximity to other carriers. This is just one example of the generally accepted view that hospitals are pretty dangerous places and you should only go there if you absolutely have to. Some of this danger may be able to be reduced by improved hygiene standards, but it is pretty obvious that going somewhere where there are lots of sick people has little to recommend it.

All this points to the logical conclusion that we will all be a lot better off if we can diagnose our own illnesses and treatments ourselves from the comfort and safety of our own homes. This has the added benefit that if we do happen to go down with something really nasty we are less likely to give it to others. It is also quite handy if those of us with a tendency to hypochondria, can for a few dollars and without taking time off work, reassure ourselves that we are not actually suffering from scurvy.

I do not believe that there is any fundamental reason why the great majority of testing of various bodily fluids and biopsies that currently require a two week visit to a laboratory cannot one day be within the scope of low cost personally operated test kits.

Would not it be good if we could simply determine whether or not we had flu, mumps, measles or just a common cold, or to be able to rule out meningitis? Also, when you are feeling like death warmed up, is not it rather ridiculous to drag yourself into the doctor's only to be told you should have stayed in bed?

Clive Loughlin