“If you think about the arm is just a rigid surface and if there is a hollowing of the bone or a reduction in density which is osteoporosis, that frequency changes,” added Prof Patel. “It’s like taking a pitchfork and you hitting it and it has some frequency and pitch to it and if you were to hollow it out that frequency changes.

“You can start to do remote disease management outside of the clinic. This could really change how we diagnose and screen diseases. Now the patient is empowered to be able to collect this data.”

Beth Mynatt, of Georgia Institute of Technology, has also been working on using smartphones and computers to help support patients who are dealing with chronic conditions like diabetes or cancer. She has helped develop apps which remind people to attend appointments, or tell them which symptoms to expect on specific days after chemotherapy.

“Our tools become a personal support system,” she said. “Breast cancer patients are given a personal computer and it has all of the information about their diagnoses and treatment inuputted into that system.