Feeling a little stressed? Now, testing stress levels is about to get a whole lot easier with the addition of a new app that will let users to gauge stress via their smartphone.
The goal is to help doctors via simple saliva sample to measure the stress hormone cortisol. The announcement of the app was presented as new research at last week's ICE/ENDO 2014, a meeting of the International Society of Endocrinology and the Endocrine Society in Chicago.
"We have designed a method by which anyone with a smartphone will be able to measure their salivary cortisol level quickly, easily and inexpensively," said lead investigator Dr. Joel Ehrenkranz, director of diabetes and endocrinology at Intermountain Healthcare in Murray, Utah.
The idea is simple: speed up understanding health issues and reduce the overall costs on individuals. Commercial laboratories often cost upwards of $50 for any similar test and can take as long as seven days before the results are given. With the new app, Ehrenkranz believes the price can be reduced to less than five dollars and the results returned in around 10 minutes.
"Parts of the United States and the rest of the world that lack facilities to measure cortisol will now be able to perform this essential diagnostic test," he said. "Also, measuring salivary cortisol with this technology will provide a way for individuals to monitor their personal biometric stress levels easily and inexpensively."
He believes if healthcare providers were to offer the service, and the app is available for use in under served areas of the globe, it can be a boon to preventative care.
Project collaborator Dr. Randall Polson, senior optical engineer in the College of Engineering at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, following the conference, said he is hopeful the app will make stress testing accessible and understandable in a language all can understand in order to deliver the best care possible.
"The measurement system's smartphone and reader act as a photo studio ... The complex and difficult processes are put into the strip chemistry and embedded into the smartphone application, so if you have a charged phone and a test kit you can get accurate results without complicated infrastructure and highly trained technicians," Polson said.
