The PathoZenalyser

         Being a huge fan of James Bond from my teenage, it's only logical that I'd be drawn towards gadgets. If I had tried to get a patent of all the new inventions that I used to doodle in the back pages of my exercise books during idle hours, it would have broken all records by now. My innovations ranged from adding different shapes to nail cutters to having various modifications in submarines & helicopters. I imagined myself as a Leonardo da Vinci of modern times.Accordingly, I've been a smartphone lover. From the earliest gigantic keypad phones that could be used as weapons of self defence , to the sleekest smart phones today, I've used all. Whenever I got a new phone, I tried to imagine how much more I could get out of it. 

Somehow,I didn't become an engineer , but I've ended up being a doctor. But my love for gadgets has added a new dimension to my thought process. Nowadays ,I try to imagine how I can marry technology & human physiology ,so that medicine can progress quickly , aided by this union.
There are already apps in smartphones that help doctors calculate certain body parameters easily . but what if smart phones had the hardware to help the cause??

The Asus Zenphone is one such state-of-the-art beauty that comes with goodies loaded to the brim . The super touchscreen is a treat to the eyes, and as it claims, it lets us feel what others can't feel! The camera has the ability to absorb 400% more light, so it has the eyes to see what others can't see. To top it all, its Intel® Atom™ Processor with Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology gets up to four threads running at once.....and hence it's aptly said it can do what others can't do...... It's SUPER FAST!

Marvellous ! 

These specs thus can add up to give me a spectacular new gadget , the PathoZenalyser, to examine body fluids , and act as an Auto-analyser !! Should I explain further ??

Let's say, I'm in the hospital wards , and I need to test a blood/saliva/any other body fluid sample urgently. Not everyone is blessed to have swanky labs operating 24x7 at their hospitals. It's for them that my envisioned Super powered Zenphone comes as a saviour! 

I can place a drop of blood on the screen of the phone, and it's sensors will spring to life, dissecting the components of the fluid , calculating the specific gravity,pH , etc. Since the screen allows a gloved hand to use it, it will be perfect for me to operate wearing a glove! Aided by the sensors beneath the screen that'll send out rays of light, and do spectral analysis of the sample, I should be able to get the blood cell counts , and the quantities of various biochemical & pathological parameters like enzymes in no time, .....that is, the job of a  laboratory auto analyser! 

My Incredible ZenPhone : The PathoZenalyser

If there are any aberrant samples which the phone thinks is suggestive of an uncommon disease that it cannot identify at once, it will send a photo of its analysed sample to the databases online , to search for matching samples and come up with a list of suggestions for the clinician to look at . 

Moreover, I can use the camera as a microscope. I can take a smear from a patient's wound, use the Zenphone's extraordinary camera, which takes in 400% more light than others, to click a photo of the swab. I should be able to get a vivid detail of the image (at least upto a 40X power Light microscope), and see the micro-organisms (bacteria/fungus) present , thereby, helping me a great deal in the initial choice of medications . 

A hand-held Mini X-ray machine

The camera should also be able to do a preliminary hand held low-grade X-Ray , thus guiding me in the assessment of whether there is any fracture ! 

Thus, my Asus Zenphone would become the super-phone that every doctor in the country would crave for . Those who work at hospitals with poor infrastructure would treat it as a Godsend , as it would help them take decisions more confidently . The fast actions of the phone would save a lot of time , as well as saving the patient's harassments in running from one lab to another at odd times of the night. The Zenphone will not be the definitive replacement for Pathology laboratories,because no machine can ever substitute human intelligence or skill, but in the short term , will be beneficial in ensuring better treatment schedules for patients! 

Written as part of the #IncredibleZen contest by Asus India in association with Indiblogger. You can find out more about this new Zenfone here.