Noncommunicable Diseases

Artificial limbs are a matter of necessity for people with lower-limb amputations. However, due to a lack of affordable and functional technologies, there is a large unmet need in low and middle income countries. With key research partners around the world, we are developing affordable mobility technologies to reduce disability. Follow Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital on Twitter @bloorviewPR"

Thousands of people in the Kenyan Rift Valley and Nyanza regions are currently exposed to very high concentrations of fluoride in their drinking water. Many of them suffer from Fluorosis, a disease characterized by significant bone deformation and crippling. These innovators propose the use of a novel technology (HAIX-ZnO) to remediate these waters.

Consure Medical is engaged in the development and the commercialization of a novel way to manage fecal incontinence in non-ambulatory patients. The company has a functional prototype, has successfully completed a ‘First-in-man’ safety study at leading tertiary hospital and has strong IP protection in key markets across the globe.

Some 32 million children worldwide suffer from disabling hearing loss. In developing nations, many of them rarely receive any schooling and are faced with stigma and marginalization. Sign language for native dialects often has very limited vocabulary, and a surgically implanted electronic device (a cochlear implant) is extremely expensive and invasive. Sense Intelligent provides an innovative tool and specialized training to help deaf people ‘hear’ in real time.

Hearing Express is a model to quickly fit and deliver affordable, high-quality hearing aids in developing countries, particularly to children & youth. By using rapid-fitting hearing aids, mobile diagnostic devices, and an entrepreneurial distribution system, this model is a sustainable and scalable way of addressing hearing loss on a global scale.

In 2008 the WHO estimated that 664 million people have hearing impairment and that 80% of them live in low and middle income countries. Only 20% of the world's population has access to hearing testing and only 1 in 40 will be fitted with a hearing aid. In all of Africa there are only 160 audiologists for over 1 billion people. Demand for care vastly exceeds supply of equipment and professionals. Our idea is to develop a mobile point of care diagnostic tool that is so simple a child can test their own hearing. The test is fun, accurate and inexpensive.

In resource-poor settings, hearing impairment goes undiagnosed till the child is about 3 years. By then, it is too late for the care cycle to be effective and leads to speech loss & impaired communication. Sohum provides early screening that leads to timely treatment and rehabilitation, as well as savings in healthcare expenses to the system.

Our Adaptive Design International social innovation pilot partnership in Bolivia will scale up to a global knowledge-mobilization platform for communities, including collaboration with Ghana's University of Education, to learn how to produce and distribute adaptively designed furniture. The furniture is created from accessible resources such as cardboard, and helps children with disabilities survive, thrive, and meaningfully contribute to society.

A collaborative project to develop proteinaceous sweeteners from locally occurring plant sources as an alternative to the existing sweeteners. These products will have a global impact towards alleviating the diabetes and obesity epidemic which are caused by excess consumption of high calorific sweeteners.

If successful, this project on intranasal nicotine vaccine promises to aid in smoking cessation, and therefore has the potential of saving thousands of lives every year.