You can get a lot of different kinds of information sent directly to your phone via text message. Some people sign up for texts containing the latest sports scores, others for alerts on movement in the stock market. Britain's National Health Service is trying out one that's new to us: getting the results of medical testing sent to you via SMS.

While you might think that a medical professional should be the one informing the patient of tests results, especially if there's any bad news, this application is actually taking advantage of the privacy afforded by not having to deal with a doctor directly. The program is set up to diagnose patients who suspect they may have chlamydia, a potentially embarrassing topic to have to bring up face-to-face with a doctor. Users of the program can sign up online, receive a test kit in the mail, and send back in their sample. Once the lab work is completed, patients can elect to receive their results straight away via text message.

It's certainly an innovative use of the technology, but it seems like this sort of practice has limited applications. It only seems beneficial in situations where both the patient would be embarrassed enough to want to avoid face-to-face contact, and those where the potential bad results are minimal - chlamydia is easily treated with antibiotics. For cases like this one, though, the idea seems like a winner.

This story around the web: