Title:
Mobile Phones May Soon Test for STIs and Blood
Pressure
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Technology Report.
See text below
Text:
Mobile phone technology is quickly changing the way
the world operates. Today, we tell about two new
projects involving mobile health, also known as
m-health. Doctors and technology experts in London
are developing a new way to test for sexual
infections. The new device uses mobile phones and
computers to help people find out if they have been
infected with a sexual disease. People will be able
to perform the test in the privacy of their own
homes. People place urine or saliva on a small piece
of paper. They place the test strip in a small
device that contains a computer chip. Then they
place the device in their mobile phone or a computer
for testing. Within minutes, they receive
information telling them if they have a sexual
disease. And they receive advice on what to do next.
Claudia Estcourt is with Barts and The London School
of Medicine and Dentistry. She is also part of the
research team working on the project. She says:
"This isn't designed to replace traditional clinics.
This is really opening testing up to people who
might find it embarrassing or difficult to get into
their clinic."Health experts say many young people
are too ashamed to visit a clinic to be tested. This
increases the risk of them passing on sexual
diseases. The researchers hope the tests will help
persuade people to be tested and reduce the number
of sexually transmitted infections. Dr. Estcourt
says the project is still seven to ten years away
from completion. But she says it holds great promise
for the future, especially in developing countries.
In other news, researchers at the University of
Toronto in Canada are studying a mobile phone system
that may help people with diabetes control their
blood pressure. The system collects blood pressure
readings from home testing devices that have
wireless technology. The readings are then sent to a
health-care monitoring system. Patients receive a
mobile phone message telling them how they are
doing. If their blood pressure is too high, they are
advised to make an appointment with their doctor.
Several high readings will cause the system to
automatically contact the doctor. Patients in the
study used the mobile phone system for one year. The
researchers found that thirty-seven percent of the
patients were able to get their blood pressure under
control. This compares with about fourteen percent
of patients using common equipment. For VOA Special
English, I'm Alex Villarreal.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
