Smart Cell Phones Help Diagnose TB and Save the World

Published October 16, 2009 @ 11:59AM PT

Smart cell-phones, with increasingly powerful processors, aren't just unnecessary Western indulgences, they're helping doctors everywhere from Bangladesh to the Philippines. Non profit organization Moca has created software that helps increase diagnosis time when patients are being tested for tuberculosis by reducing the time it takes to get x-rays to a radiologist.

This software, and many other similar innovations, has emerged from the NextLab at MIT, funded by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim. He hopes to bring mobile technology to those who fall outside the marketing plans of phone companies, and the organizations hopes that mobile technology can help change the world and have a positive impact on people's lives.

The popularity of cell-phones around the world is not question — the BBC recently explained that 40-50% of traffic to their Mobile News site comes from Africa. Now we need to continue thinking of ways to put these cellphones to good use.

Photo credit: Ken Banks, Kiwanja.net

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