Mobile Phone Microscope: Malaria Diagnosis

Researchers at Texas A&M have invented a microscope that can aid greatly in the diagnosis and treatment of malaria, that attaches to a cell phone.

Yes, a cell phone.

The add-on device, which is similar in look and feel to a protective phone case, makes use of a smart phone's camera features to produce high-resolution images of objects 10 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair, according to Science Daily.

Gerard Coté, professor of biomedical engineering and director of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station's Center for Remote Health Technologies and Systems, led the study, published in Scientific Reports.

"What we've achieved with [the microscope] is the design of a polarized microscope platform using a cell phone, which can detect birefringence in histological specimens infected with the malaria parasite," Coté said. "It's a simple, low-cost, portable device that we believe is more sensitive than the standard microscope that uses white light and just as accurate as the more costly and complex benchtop version of a polarized microscope."  

The device, called the mobile-optical-polarization imaging device (MOPID), looks and feels essentially like a phone case.

MOPID uses a small cartridge that holds a patient's blood-smear sample. Then, using polarized light in order to detect the presence of hemozoin crystals, the byproduct of the malaria parasite, the sample is imaged. The crystals appear as tiny, bright dots on the camera screen, allowing for instant diagnosis.

MOPID uses existing mobile phone technology and networks, which 75 percent of the world can use. This makes MOPID an ever-increasingly usable product.

The MOPID system is operable with both iOS- and Android-based devices and requires less microscope experience that alternative methods. Coupled with the system's portability and expected cost of about $10 per unit, it is an ideal technology for low-resource areas affected by malaria, according to Lab Manager.

"These factors increase the likelihood of adoption of the technique in developing countries where cost, complexity and lack of expertly trained technicians can often prohibit the use of a polarized microscopy technique or even traditional laboratory microscopy as the standard of diagnosis," Coté said. 

Malaria, a mosquito-borne illness caused by a parasite that can cause fever and flu-like symptoms, and "in 2013 an estimated 198 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide and 500,000 people died, mostly children in the African Region," according to the CDC. 

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