Tool/Machine

Our idea is to develop BiliSpec, a bilirubin monitoring device with a per-test cost of less than $0.10. BiliSpec includes: (1) a lateral-flow device to separate serum from whole blood in under 30 seconds and (2) a battery powered reader to measure light transmission through the separated serum on the strip and display the bilirubin concentration. We estimate our device could prevent the deaths of approximately ninety-thousand neonates who die every year due to lack of access to effective treatment and monitoring for neonatal jaundice in low-resource settings.

We propose developing a mobile phone based Cardiotocography (CTG) (m-CTG) with inbuilt algorithm and alerts that can be used to identify the at-risk fetuses and monitor high-risk pregnant women for early referral and appropriate action. The proposed cheaper m-CTG device (cost ~$100-120) shall have the functions of standard CTG devices including FHR, fetal movements and uterine contraction. The in-built algorithm shall allow categorization to identify the abnormal ones. This device shall be mobile/ portable and easy to handle.

In this project, we will develop a mobile phone oximeter attachment that can measure tissue oxygenation without touching the body. This makes it a valuable add on to the pocket of a community healthcare worker in a resource-poor country, helping him/her quickly identify sick children and allocate extremely limited resources to save their lives.

The primary objective of this project is to develop a platform that comprehensively screens for substandard medicines, expand implementation from a central testing facility to regional and community health centers and create demand through stakeholder education workshops. This project is expected to impact quality of MCH medicines on the market. Existing methods of substandard drug detection are bulky, require technical expertise, time-consuming, qualitative, error-prone and do not measure drug release kinetics.

Laerdal Global Health's low-cost Fetal Heart Rate (FHR) monitor; MOYO and its training program will help providers measure FHR faster, automatically and more accurate to make timely obstetric responses when detecting fetuses at risk. This will reduce the burden of stillbirths and births asphyxia, estimated to account for 2million perinatal deaths annually. 98-99% of these deaths occur in low and middle-income countries. Expanding the use of MOYO to referring hospitals and dispensaries will help detecting fetuses at risk earlier and improve referrals.

The objective of our intervention is to establish SimPrints as a cost-effective technology to deliver services that increase antenatal continuity of care and community health worker (CHW) accountability. In many developing countries patient medical records are paper-based, difficult to access, and prone to loss/damage. Existing mHealth technologies are similarly limited by vulnerabilities in misidentification such as common community names or unknown dates-of-birth.

Our proposal will provide this life-saving treatment to isolated, extremely resource poor people by obviating the need for electricity. This will be achieved by applying recently developed hydrological engineering approaches to extract the pressure differential required for the adsorption process exploited by Oxygen concentrators. This project aims to develop and test an electricity free Oxygen concentrator suitable for a developing world health facility.

We have designed a low-cost, hand-held, non-contact, point-and-click vital sign monitor (VSM) for neonates that assesses heart and respiratory function, PO2 saturation, thermal regulation and blood vessel branching to improve detection and referral of frail newborns. The VSM can be used by community health workers (CHW) and clinic-based personnel. We propose to assess the potential of the VSM as a tool to save newborn lives.

We propose to create an inexpensive, easy-to-use, handheld system that detects the likelihood of the future onset of preeclampsia. A 50-patient clinical study will validate its effectiveness. Pregnant women can be scanned non-invasively and extremely inexpensively (no disposables required) in 5-10 minutes.

Although intrauterine devices (IUDs) are effective long-acting contraceptives, IUD insertion is very complex, so IUDs are often unavailable in resource poor settings. Bioceptive's proposal is to create a reusable IUD inserter for the developing world with the goals that it is intuitive, Cu380A IUD compatible, safer, and low cost. Bioceptive will develop a reusable version of its patent-pending IUD inserter that makes the insertion procedure easier and safer, allowing more women worldwide to take advantage of one of the most effective forms of contraception.