A photo of a fingernail can now be used to detect and monitor for anemia, Emory research finds

A team led by Dr. Wilbur Lam, professor at Emory University and Georgia Tech and pediatric hematologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, has developed a revolutionary, non-invasive method to detect and monitor anemia using a smartphone photo of a fingernail.

The AI-powered app analyzes fingernail coloration to identify anemia with 89% sensitivity and 93% specificity. It can be personalized using a patient’s clinical hemoglobin data, making it especially useful for individuals with chronic anemia due to conditions like iron deficiency, sickle cell disease, or kidney disease. The app has already been used over 1.4 million times across the U.S. and supports public health mapping through geotagged data. Licensed to the company Sanguina, which Lam co-founded, this innovation represents a major leap in accessible, needle-free diagnostics.

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