The eradication of pneumonia still remains an issue of importance to many across the globe today. The ailment kills the greater part a million kids under five years old every year in Sub-Saharan Africa, with similar figures reported across the globe.
This issue is exacerbated when the wrong dosages for the same are prescribed by medicinal experts in these affected areas. This, in many cases is lethal to the lives of scores of individuals.
With the assistance of Mwikirize Cosmas at the University of Makerere in Uganda, the team developed a biomedical smart jacket named Mama-Ope. This device is now expected to accurately and speedily diagnose the condition.
Mama-Ope translates to ‘Hope for the Mother’. The jacket itself will measure body temperature, heart rate and lung condition.
The jacket covers the entire chest area and checks on specific points on the lungs for symptoms of the condition.
The jacket connects to a mobile phone application through Bluetooth which sends records and conducts an analysis of medical data. Hence, helping medical staff provide a quick and accurate diagnosis.
The innovators claim that the jacket will mitigate human error and will provide a diagnosis three to four times quicker than a regular physician would.
Pneumonia causes more fatalities for children under five years old than HIV/AIDS, malaria and diarrhea combined but still receives a modest funding in comparison.
The jacket is still in its initial prototype phase.
“We are still working on the production concept,” Turyabagye says. If successful this new technology could greatly benefit millions on the African continent and even world-wide.
“The process to diagnose a patient is long and doctors are somewhat hard to make appointments with,” Turyabagye explains. This invention is well timed, given the shortage of doctors and medical services in Africa today.
The innovation has also won the Pitch@Palace Africa 2017 award and was also nominated for the prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering Africa Prize 2017.
