Worried about that spot on your private parts? Too embarrassed to talk to your doctor? Fear not – now there’s an app for that. Anyone with a smartphone can download the iOS app called STD Triage, upload a picture of the problem area and send it to a team of doctors who can do an online diagnosis within minutes.
Swedish orthopaedic surgeon Alexander Börve is the man who devised the app, initially for paramedics to use at accident scenes and when that failed to catch the imagination of medical professionals, he went back to the drawing board to create a different system that allowed individuals to send pictures of rashes and other skin problems to a doctor.
The arrival of the iPhone and other smartphones containing top-class cameras revolutionised his system even further and iDoc24 was launched. To Börve’s surprise, people began using the anonymity of the app to send pictures of their genitals when they were worried they had contracted an STD (sexually-transmitted disease). And so STD Triage was created specifically for genital problems.
A team of dermatologists from across Europe are standing by 24 hours a day to examine images sent to them by concerned individuals who pay $10 for a diagnosis.
The app has its limitations – for example, it can’t tell from a picture if you have either gonorrhoea or chlamydia, the two most common sexually transmitted infections. However, it will diagnose if you have genital warts, herpes or syphilis.
Around 70% of those who use the app are given advice on how to get over-the-counter medication with the rest advised to see a doctor as quickly as possible. The app will also map out the nearest STD clinics for the user. All users are also advised to get a second opinion from their own doctor or a sexual health specialist.
At the moment the majority of STD Triage users are from Sweden but the app is growing in popularity and there are users in the UK, US, Spain, Italy and Dubai.
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