You’re out on a date having dinner with the person of your dreams. You head back to your place, light some candles, and turn on some mood music. As you start making out, you remember that new app on your smartphone that tests for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). You decide to ask the love of your life to pee on a chip so you can plug it into your phone and determine if they’re healthy enough to continue.
Sound crazy? It could soon become reality. The Guardian is reporting that a forum called the UK Clinical Research Collaboration have funneled £4m into the technology. No formal release date was given.
The technology will be targeted towards young people who are too embarrassed to go to a clinic, allowing them to be tested in the comfort of their own home. The hope is that people who think they may have been infected will pay roughly £1 for a test chip, leading to early detection and reducing the spread of infections to other sexual partners. It can also help prevent long-term health problems such as infertility.
Cases of STDs have been on the rise in the UK, with 482,696 new cases reported in 2009 alone. The under-25 crowd makes up the majority of the new cases, with two-thirds of the women diagnosed and half of the men diagnosed falling into that category.