Diagnose Illness with a Smartphone

Is it possible to diagnose illness with a smartphone? In the very near future a smartphone will vastly improve your healthcare provider's ability to support your wellness.

Decades ago, some doctors worried that computers might replace our profession. Other doctors, the clever ones, knew that the digital age would be a boon to our patients. A brilliant American cardiologist, geneticist and researcher, Doctor Eric Topol, recently spoke with NBC (Rock Center – Brian Williams) about medicine's digital revolution. Here's the video interview titled, 'iDoctor Could a smartphone be the future of medicine?':

If this YouTube video disappears, here's a link to the original NBC version.

If you found the video tantalizing, check out Doctor Topol's most recent book, 'The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care':

History: In the early days of computers in the office, it was easy to impress. Other medical offices were often dismayed when my receptionist was able to immediately provide them with patient details. She used QuickDex running on an Apple Mac II. I would export baseline information from my FileMaker database to her QuickDex every morning before the office opened.

I recall the head nurse in the ER being overly impressed with how quickly I was able to give her full medical history details based only on the baseline information she had been given by the ambulance dispatcher. All I had to do was to search a few fields in my FileMaker database.

How far we've already travelled. Imagine what's yet to come!