At-home diagnostics have been a crucial weapon in the war against the COVID-19 pandemic, and after proving their mettle on that battlefield, they’re now becoming the standard for routine medical care.
One such test newly cleared by the FDA, for example, brings early detection of kidney disease into the home, requiring only a patient’s existing smartphone and an artificial intelligence-powered app to run. The Minuteful Kidney test was developed by Healthy.io and comprises a standard albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) test, which is typically used as one of the first indicators of kidney damage.
An ACR test measures the amount of albumin in the urine. Because consistently higher-than-average excretions of the protein are a primary and early symptom of kidney damage, the test can help diagnose chronic kidney disease in its earliest stages.
According to Healthy.io, the Minuteful Kidney test marks the first smartphone-based, at-home ACR test cleared by the FDA. It was given the OK to run on all current Android and Apple smartphones.
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