Israeli invention may spare visit to doctor
New device developed by Tyto company can perform almost complete checkup of body and send results to physician, who will be able to make prognosis without meeting patient. Marketing of device, which is expected to cost $200, to begin next year
A new device invented in Israel will perform an almost complete checkup of your body, and send the results to the doctor, who will be able to make a prognosis without meeting you.
The device is planned to be marketed next year, and its price tag will be approximately $200.
Meet Tyto, the world’s first automatic check up device. It is composed of a tiny camera and microphone and enables checking several body part: Ears, lungs, heart, skin, eyes and more.
The device stores the pics and audio in high definition, and then sends it the doctor's PC, smartphone or iPad, allowing him to analyze the data and decide if the patient has a medical condition. Indeed, nothing beats a full body check, but the developers believe that using the gadget will allow skipping nearly half of routine health checks.
How does it work? First, Tyto allows checking body temperature by pointing it at your forehead. Then, to check your pharynx, you can insert Tyto until the edge of your mouth. For an ear check up, you place it gently in your ear until a high-res picture of your eardrum is taken.
To inspect your heart rate, you place Tyto on your chest as instructed by the device. It then records your heart beats, and when a sufficient sample is collected, it is sent to the doctor.
In addition, Tyto can also be used to take pictures of skin conditions and the eyes. Dedi Gilad, CEO of the company, states that the new device differentiates from existing smartphone applications (which serve similar purposes) in the quality of the samples which are unprecedented.
Furthermore, Tyto instructs users to point the device to the right body point, and only then takes a sample from the precise location.
"It knows how the eardrum looks, how the heart and lungs sound and in what pressure it should be placed against the body, so it helps the user do the examination in an optimal way," Gilad says.
According to Gilad, the device was tested and verified with a number of doctors in pharmacies and in a children’s hospital in Spain, and was found to be highly precise, just a bit short of a traditional check up.
The Tyto is scheduled to be tested in another children’s hospital in Boston - which is considered one of the best of its kind - soon.
Reprinted with permission from Shalom Life
