Need a biopsy? Don't want to wait on results? There's an app for that!
A portable scanner built at Massachusetts General Hospital allows doctors to get biopsy results in an hour.
First the physician collects patient cell samples, which are miniscule enough to be aspirated with a fine needle from multiple sites of a suspect tumor, increasing the accuracy of the results. Then the physician puts the cells into the scanner and connects it to a smartphone, of all things. The device looks for signs of nine proteins specific to cancer cells in order make its diagnosis. With a custom app, the doctor can read the results from the machine within the hour.
Is that cool or what?
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