The Advent of the PhoneGnostic by the Cosmetics Chemist
21 October 2016
By Daniela De Lucia – September 15, 2015
It is no secret that technology is changing our world faster than ever and, as historically occurs, big changes provoke mixed feelings: negative, positive, fear, excitement, or skepticism. What is certain is that such a change cannot be ignored anymore and it would be shortsighted to do so!
In this short piece, I would like to direct the attention of my colleagues to an important breakthrough that has the potential to disrupt our industry—something that I have termed PhoneGnostic. The first step in this direction has already been taken with the design of digital apps that, using a smartphone camera, enable monitoring of wrinkles, acne breakouts, etc.
With the term PhoneGnostic, I am referring to a branch of the mobile health (mHealth) based portable systems.1 These are diagnostic tools, previously available only in research laboratories, that once in the hands of patients/consumers have the potential to raise their awareness to an entirely different level.