Cellphones have long been touted as a way to bridge the developing world’s digital divide. Now doctors in remote hospitals might be able to use them to detect tumours.
Conventional imaging devices are too expensive for three-quarters of the world’s population. So Boris Rubinsky and colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a cheap imaging device based on a technology known as electrical impedance tomography.
Bone, muscles and diseased tissue such as tumours all conduct electricity differently. To spot these telltale differences, up to 256 electrodes are attached to the body and a voltage is applied. The…
