The electronic nose, or e-nose, has proven to be effective not only for establishing authenticity for valuable agriculture goods so people don’t get ripped off, but it’s also useful for detecting whether or not goods are spoiled to prevent foodborne illnesses and even determine whether or not someone has a specific health condition.
According to a Philippine study, the e-nose technology efficacy is comparable to the gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GC-MS), but it’s much more affordable and compact.
For example, the PERES e-Nose can determine the quality of poultry, fish, pork and beef during preparation by looking at more than a hundred volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to establish whether or not the product is safe to eat. Incorporating this technology could help prevent some illnesses that affect 48 million people in the U.S. each year.
With the Rise of AI, What IP Disputes in Healthcare Are Likely to Emerge?
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
Beyond that, this technology has developed to rapidly detect diseases in patients, reducing the average diagnostic time period.
According to Forbes, Finnish researchers have developed an e-nose capable of detecting prostate cancer in patients’ urine while also having the ability to distinguish this from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH, enlarged prostate).
In addition to that, Hossam Haick, a professor at the Israel Institute of Technology, has also developed a tool for detecting stomach cancer in a patient’s breath with 92% accuracy. And e-nose technologies can be applied to detect lung cancer.
A Personalized Approach to Medication Nonadherence
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
As Forbes pointed out, there are many more applications for this type of device that could make a huge difference in the diagnostic process and clinical environment.
E-noses will soon be utilized to aid in the diagnosis of such conditions as ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This technology can easily be incorporated into walk-in clinics and hospitals with results much quicker than conventional testing. There has also been improvment in the ability of this technology to detect the bacterium C. difficile (C. diff) in patient’s feces. C. diff is a highly infectious hospital super-bug with a high rate of morbidity and mortality when treatment is delayed. E-noses have the ability to not only detect the bacteria quickly; they can even differentiate between strains of C. diff.
Photo: Flickr user montillon.a
