There is now an iPhone app and dongle that can test your blood to see if you have HIV and syphilis, and the results take only 15 minutes to process.

 

The dongle and app were created by researchers at Columbia University. They are hoping the device, currently a prototype, will soon help make HIV testing more accessible to people.

 

The device easily plugs into an iPhone or other smartphone. You get a pinprick of blood from your finger, place this in the device, and it will read the blood sample. The device will cost about $34.

 

The potential impact of such a device is huge. It would allow for testing in remote areas of the world. It would also allow members of the LGBT community to be tested discretely in countries where homosexuality is illegal.  

 

“The test is designed to be used by anyone proficient with a smartphone," explained Samuel Sia, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia. "The cost, size and power … those three things, we just reduced it by orders of magnitude from what we did before. It replicates all the things that a lab-based robot would do.

 

"We are hoping to see a version of this product in the market in a few years.”

 

There’s a Smartphone Attachment That Will Test for HIV in 15 Minutes [TIME]