Smartphone App to Non-Invasively Detect Anaemia Developed

The app could facilitate self-management by patients with chronic anaemia, allowing them to monitor their disease.

Scientists have developed a smartphone app that can detect anaemia accurately and non-invasively.

Instead of a blood test, the app developed by researchers at Emory University in the US uses photos of a person's fingernails taken on a smartphone to accurately measure how much hemoglobin is in their blood.

“All other ‘point-of-care’ anaemia detection tools require external equipment, and represent trade-offs between invasiveness, cost, and accuracy,” said Wilbur Lam, principal investigator of the study appearing in the journal Nature Communications.

“This is a stand-alone app whose accuracy is on par with currently available point-of-care tests without the need to draw blood,” said Lam.