Some types of medical imaging could become cheaper and more accessible to millions of people in the developing world if an innovative concept developed by an engineer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem fulfils its promise. The device uses cellular phone technology to transmit magnetic resonance images, computed tomograms, and ultrasound scans (PLoS One 2008;3:e2075; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0002075).

The Israeli technology, which has been patented, was developed by Boris Rubinsky, who holds a joint appointment as director of the Israeli university’s Research Center for Bioengineering in the Service of Humanity and Society and is on the bioengineering and mechanical engineering faculty at the University of California at Berkeley.

“Diagnosis and …