Tool/Machine

Incidence of post-operative infection in developing countries occurs in 5 to 50 percent of patients. Neonatal infection rates are 3 to 20 times higher than in industrialized nations. This project will supply low cost sterilizers and provide education for health workers sterilizing surgical instruments, with a focus on improving operating room infection control practices and reducing the incidence of post-operative infections in West African countries such as Guinea and Republic of the Congo. For more information visit http://www.spedc.org/.

Low-birth-weight (LBW) is a major adverse pregnancy outcome in resource-poor countries which is highly associated with biomass fuel’s exposure during cooking. To address this problem, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) propose a “100-dollar-kitchen” with an improved cookstove for resource-poor settings. If proven successful, this exposure-effect intervention will be a pioneering innovation in reducing LBW in resource-limited societies. Follow International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh on Twitter @icddr_b"

Every year, more than one million of an estimated 15 million babies born preterm die from preterm-related complications, and many that do survive face life-long disabilities or health complications. A pessary (silicone ring) placed around the cervix (during the second part of the pregnancy) in high-risk mothers may help prevent prematurity. This project’s goal is to adapt to resource-low countries, validate and then disseminate this technique. For more information visit http://www.crc.chus.qc.ca/.

Our solution will offer oxygen monitoring and automatic oxygen delivery to patients with minimal interference from healthcare providers. The implementation will take place in Jordan.

Millions of young infants die each year in regions of South Asia and Africa that lack advanced health technologies familiar to Canadians. Pulse oximetry is a simple, portable technology that can enable health workers to rapidly identify young infants who lack adequate blood oxygen, a critical sign that indicates the need for immediate treatment.

Pneumonia is a major cause of child mortality globally. Yet life-saving oxygen therapy is challenging to administer in remote areas. Our bold idea is to develop and test solar powered oxygen concentrators. Starting with abundant, freely available resources, we can use the sun to extract oxygen from air to rescue children with pneumonia. Follow Michael Hawkes on Twitter @MichaelHawkesMD"

Bempu is developing a novel neonatal temperature monitoring device that continuously measures the infant’s temperature and uses intuitive alarms to alert a mother to warm her child, when needed. The device aims to drastically and cost-effectively reduce the rates of neonatal hypothermia and severe infection.

Hypothermia is a major problem faced by over 20 million low-birthweight and premature babies born worldwide each year, mostly in developing countries where access to incubators is limited. To replace current local solutions (hot water bottles, hot coals, light bulbs), a portable, low-cost warmer created by this project works without electricity and is intended for use in rural homes. The goal is to deploy this technology through government health workers. For more information visit www.embraceinnovations.com"

Poor transportation for referral of women with obstetric emergencies is one of the avoidable factors to reduce maternal mortality. This project will deploy motorized three wheeler vans (Mom's Van) in selected rural areas in Bangladesh and Burkina Faso. Each van will be connected through a cell phone and will be managed through a community oversight committee. If successful, the project will generate evidence as a future model of transport intervention to reduce maternal mortality for large scale evaluation and sustainability. Follow Nazmul Alam on Twitter @NazmulAlamm"

    Injuries affect more than 50 million people worldwide each year. Often, surgery is the only appropriate treatment. Developing countries suffer from a lack of simple, cost-effective and affordable surgical care and this causes a high rate of preventable deaths.   Innovators of University of Toronto have developed a low-cost, reusable, and easy to use closure kit for large wounds that robustly provides a 100% closure rate. The portable kit can be carried out to patients in any situation and doctors can use the kit in rural villages without hospitals.