Tablets and apps might be doctor's orders of the future

These days it seems as if there is an app for every medical condition. Diabetics can monitor their blood sugar levels via their smartphones, there are apps to track diet, pregnancy and menstrual cycles. It is even possible to get smartphone-enabled blood pressure cuffs.

Daniel Kraft is a trained doctor who heads up the medicine school at the Singularity University, in Silicon Valley, California.   When interviewed he is carrying a device that looks suspiciously like a Tricorder, the scanners that were standard issue in Star Trek.

"This is a mock-up of a medical tricorder that can scan you and get information. I can hold it to my forehead and it will pick up my heart rate, my oxygen saturation, my temperature, my blood pressure and communicate it to my smartphone," he explains.

In future, Dr Kraft predicts, such devices will be linked to artificial intelligence agents on smartphones, which in turn will be connected to super-computers such as IBM's Watson, to give people instant and accurate diagnoses.

Dr Kraft was also wearing four wristbands, monitoring a range of things including his heart rate, his sleep pattern and how many steps he takes each day.

Last year, the UK's Department of Health said that it was looking at the possibility of doctors prescribing apps, although they are currently unregulated, leading some medical experts to question what role they should play in healthcare.

Click here to link to article on BBC Health