page_title: Medical tricorder
section_title: How it might work
hierarchical_section_title: Medical tricorder / How it might work
caption_attribution_description: English: electronic thermometers
context_page_description: A medical tricorder is a handheld portable scanning device to be used by consumers to self-diagnose medical conditions within seconds and take basic vital measurements. While the device is not yet on the mass market, there are numerous reports of other scientists and inventors also working to create such a device as well as improve it. A common view is that it will be a general-purpose tool similar in functionality to a Swiss Army Knife to take health measurements such as blood pressure and temperature, and blood flow in a noninvasive way. It would diagnose a person's state of health after analyzing the data, either as a standalone device or as a connection to medical databases via an Internet connection.
  The idea of a medical tricorder comes from an imaginary device on the science fiction TV show Star Trek from the 1960s which featured fictional character Dr. Leonard McCoy using it to instantly diagnose medical conditions. One description of the fictional device was as follows:
  The medical tricorder has a detachable, high-resolution, hand-held scanner that sends life-sign information to the tricorder itself.
context_section_description: In 2012, there are devices built for medical professionals to analyze specific diseases or take specific health measurements, but there is not one all-purpose consumer device to diagnose a variety of conditions. Numerous accounts speculate that the advent of high-power computer chips, cell-phone technology, and improved scanners means that such a device will likely be invented in the next few years. There are devices now which can perform a single function analysis, such as a thermometer measuring bodily temperature, but the idea of a medical tricorder is that it should be able to perform a variety of basic yet important tasks. For example, it may be possible to combine a high-power microscope with a cellphone and use it to analyze swab samples electronically. Two electrodes on a device may measure heart action and serve as a portable electrocardiagram. Glucose levels can be measured by sampling tiny blood samples. It may analyze polarized light coming from a person's skin to reveal information about cancer or the healing of a wound. Sensors may pick up on abnormalities with DNA as well as the presence of antibodies. An ultrasonic probe can plug into a smartphone, allowing it to be used to create ultrasound images. Medical tricorders may work by sensing "volatile organic compounds our bodies secrete" by some means of smell. A second report confirms that sensitive electronic "noses" may detect infections such as pneumonia from a person's exhaled breaths.
caption: The conception of a medical tricorder will be a general purpose scanner with many functions, including that of measuring temperatures like these digital thermometers.
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