Screening of sickle cell disease using a smartphone-based microscope and deep-learning

We present a deep-learning based device to perform automated screening of sickle cell disease (SCD) using images of blood smears captured by a smartphone-based microscope. We experimentally validated the system using 96 blood smears (including 32 positive samples for SCD), each coming from a unique patient. Tested on these blood smears, our framework achieved a 98% accuracy and had an area-under-the-curve (AUC) of 0.998. Since this technique is both low-cost and accurate, it has the potential to improve access to cost-effective screening and monitoring of patients in low resource settings – particularly in areas where existing diagnostic methods are unsuitable.