Infrared (IR) technology has been used for a number of years as a diagnostic tool for a number of medical conditions. The principal attraction is that is a totally non-invasive technology deriving information in a passive way.
To date the technology has not been widely adopted for two principal reasons. The first has been the availability of high quality IR cameras at a reasonable cost. Traditionally the manufacturers of such devices have kept the price high because one of their principal markets is the military. Prices have been dropping but it still is a limiting factor. The other reason is the relative inadequacy of rigorous algorithms to interpret the acquired data.
The two leading centres worldwide for research into the application of infrared technology in the medical field are the Computational Physiology Lab (http://www.cpl.uh.edu/) at the University of Houston and the Functional Infrared Imaging Lab at ITAB (http://www.fondazioneunich.it/portal/Default.asp?p=31&m=0 only in Italian!) – the Institute of Advanced Biomedical Technologies at the Foundation University G. D’Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara, Italy.
It is worthwhile noting that the Functional Infrared Imaging Lab at ITAB has undertaken significant research regarding the application of IR for the diagnosis of urological and related complaints which impact on ED.
I am looking into this and will post more details as soon as I have them available.
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