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Led by the University of California professor Dan Fletcher, the research team developed the so-called CellScope, a portable device made up of a fluorescence microscope attached to a cell phone. With the CellScope, a healthcare worker could take a blood or sputum sample, add a special liquid to tag bacteria or parasites, and take a photograph using the phone’s built-in camera. The phone can analyze the image using a special software to screen for some of the world’s most fatal diseases, including tuberculosis and malaria.

The researchers said they hope the gadget would be deployed in the remote and developing world, where performance of basic diagnostic tests are hindered by the cost of equipment and training. "The same regions of the world that lack access to adequate health facilities are, paradoxically, well served by mobile phone networks", said Fletcher. "That is something that health care workers can take advantage of by pairing cell phones with easy-to-use lab equipment", he added.

The test could be performed on a 3.2-megapixel-camera cell phone using its night mode, such as a standard Nokia N73 handset, according to a report published in the free-access journal PLoS One. David Breslauer, the lead author of the report said the biggest challenge would be keeping its cost low, while maintaining its functionality. The estimated cost of the prototype devices is about US$1,000 per piece, but the price would go down to a couple hundred dollars, if a few thousand of them are manufactured.

The team also suggested other features to be added to the phones, such as Internet connectivity and GPS location data, which would be more useful for health workers to spot outbreaks and coordinate their responses. It is hoped that the new technology could be employed to help providing early warning of outbreaks by shortening the time needed to screen, diagnose and treat infectious diseases.

This innovative cell phone microscope, if successfully introduced to the medical field, is about to become an indispensable instrument in those developing countries, and will allow us to fight diseases on a more mobile front.