LiU Summer Academy: Is There an App for That? - Potentials and Pitfalls of using Smartphones as Medical Devices

Aim

The overall aim of this course is to give students an introduction to how optical imaging and sensing techniques can be developed for medical detection and monitoring applications. Ethical questions will be discussed, such as whether the consequences of reducing costs and increasing access to these devices can meet these actual needs and demands of all individuals in the greater society.

After completing the course, the student should be able to:

• Explore the principle of operation of imaging and sensing technologies utilized in healthcare and how these relate to physiology
• Relate parts of smartphones and tablets i.e. camera and flash to the underlying components of optical medical devices
• Generate hypotheses and simple experimental methods to evaluate and test the operation of these systems
• Identify current limitations, future expertise, and understanding necessary to further this introductory experience towards more practical device designs and more robust medical indications. (i.e. ”next steps”)

Content

This course will introduce students how these smart devices can be ”hacked” and utilized to perform similar tasks to research grade optical imaging and sensing devices. These techniques and concepts will be introduced to the students at a general (empirical) level, consistent with their current competence and diverse discipline backgrounds.

While this course will be framed in an engineering/medical devise focus, the course will be designed for broad and diverse discipline participation 1) No programing experience will be required, unless the student wishes to engage that path, 2) no engineering experience will be required, as the device designs will be implemented with a hands-on, “cardboard and tape” approach 3) lastly, data analysis modules/functions will be prepared in advance .

Popular science orientation makes the course useful for students of not only technical but also humanistic disciplines.

The following topics are covered:

• How light can be used to access both tissue function and structure in the context of detecting disease and/or monitor health in a broad population.
• Introduction of basic design principles and device development concepts: what it takes to develop an optical medical imaging or sensing device, from proof-of-concept to market?
• How innovation, entrepreneurship, and product development are structured and implemented across academic and industry settings, from a Swedish perspective.
• The challenges and ethical considerations when developing a medical device that would perform equivalently across a diverse population, ranging over different skin pigmentations, ages, obesity, health status, genders, etc.