Noncommunicable Diseases

Innovators at Eco Med LLC have modified an injectable tuberculosis (TB) vaccine into convenient once-daily oral pill to be taken together with TB drugs. This simple, affordable approach will address the unmet need of the enormous TB burden in developing countries.

Myocardial infarction is difficult to detect early. Due to delayed and uncertain diagnosis, physicians are unable to take treatment decisions during the 'golden hour', i.e. before commencement of necrosis. These delays cause incapacitation and death of the patient. We propose to build a smart instrument that will rapidly diagnose myocardial Infarction. We will employ a microcantilever-based bio-sensing system, to detect early cardiac markers (eg. myoglobin) that are released in the blood after an MI event.

Large numbers of women living in rural and remote areas of developing countries lose their lives during pregnancy and child birth due to unavailability of regular antenatal care. This study will develop wristbands to monitor blood pressure, hemoglobin and blood sugar of mothers, and send the information via mobile networks for better monitoring.

By 2030, chronic and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are predicted to be biggest health threat to sub-Saharan Africa. These innovators aim to build sustainable capacity to screen and treat NCDs using approaches, systems and technologies that have been successfully employed in HIV response. This project aims to establish an integrated and scalable program for treating NCDs including cervical cancer, hypertension and diabetes.

We will test individualized therapy based on measurement of plasma renin and aldosterone in the management of resistant hypertension. We will also sequence three genes thought to cause two different types of hypertension due to salt and water retention, more common in Africa, that require therapy that is different from usual care.

Developing an innovative strategy for hypertension detection, treatment and control in two middle income countries (Hypertension Outcomes Prevention and Evaluation: HOPE-4)

DREAM-GLOBAL: Diagnosing hypeRtension - Engaging Action and Management in Getting LOwer Bp in Aboriginal and LMIC - A Research Proposal

Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD) are the number one cause of death in the world, with over 80% of all deaths taking place in low- and middle-income countries. While early detection of CVDs is possible through affordable tools such as lab tests, its efficacy is limited because the patient never checks his heart until CVD symptoms appear in late stages. This innovation aims to empower every individual through an innovative CVD detection tool running on her/his smartphone: just take a photo of your eye and your vascular health will be automatically assessed.

The device is to be used as a replacement of the expensive echocardiography to pre-diagnose common heart diseases in Vietnam.

Cervical cancer is a leading cause of cancer mortality among women, with more than 85% of the deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries. Effective commercial vaccines against cervical cancer exist but are expensive. These innovators, linked with McMaster University, will use microalgae to produce vaccines against cervical cancer that cost less than $1 CAD per dose.