You may, one day in the future, be able to wear a smartwatch, fitness tracker or other piece of kit that will be able to spot cancer before medical professionals have the chance.
The chief executive of Nokia, Rajeev Suri, shared his vision of future medical treatment at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland and said the tech may be able to spot cancer "several months" before a medical diagnosis.
Speaking of miniaturized wearable scanners, Suri said, "With these sort of products, you can start to prevent stuff before it occurs and we think through biomarkers you can even figure out cancer several months before it occurs."
Biomarkers is a catch all term, but it's a way to measure a biological state or condition.
Ahead of time
Nokia makes fitness tracking, sleep and other products, but has also put a lot of money into its research team to find new health areas it can help improve.
One product the team is working on is a sleeve the customer can wear to track information down to levels of glucose, cholesterol and lactic acid. Rather than just being a fitness device, this would be to track your health in between doctor appointments.
Suri believes these trackers could soon allow healthcare professionals to keep an eye on your well-being, and one those elements may be able to spot cancer earlier than people do right now.
This isn't likely to be a consumer product anytime soon. This is tech that Nokia is experimenting with and the company looks to be investing heavily in future healthcare tech.
That may mean the device is used in future by the health industry instead of being included on a consumer fitness tracker. Wherever it's used though, it'd be great to see this new tech hit the market and help users spot cancer earlier than ever.
Via CNBC
