Practical medical devices for use in poor countries

José Gómez-Márquez’s lab at MIT seems to be part toy store, part machine shop, and part medical cente­r. Plastic toys are scattered across the bench tops, along with a disassembled drugstore pregnancy test, all manner of syringes, and a slew of fake body parts. Coffee filters have been transformed into paper-based diagnostics; a dime-store helicopter provides the design for a new asthma inhaler; even a toilet plunger has been put to use, rigged with tubes and glue to form a makeshift centrifuge.

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ChangeMaker: Dr Ting Choon Meng, BPro Watch Inventor

HealthStats Revolutionises with  its Innovations

In 2005, Singapore medical device company HealthSTATS International made the world sit up.

That year, HealthSTATS International introduced EVBP, a proprietary technology that featuring a sensor that picks up pulsations from the artery in the wrist and translates them into blood pressure readings in the shape of waveforms. These waveforms provide the most accurate and complete reading of blood pressure currently available. HealthSTATS International has deployed this technology in several devices, including one called BPro.

BPro is a watch-like device that captures blood pressure fluctuations and pulse variations over a 24-hour period. BPro’s novel capability is that it enables medical professionals to predict possible blood pressure-related diseases such as stroke, hypertension and heart attack. It also allows doctors to more accurately diagnose and manage hypertension, as well as better evaluate the effectiveness of blood pressure medications.

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The LifeStraw makes dirty water clean

More than one billion people – one sixth of the world’s population – are without access to safe water supply. At any given moment, about half of the world’s poor are suffering from waterborne diseases, of which over 6,000 – mainly children – die each day by consuming unsafe drinking water. The world’s most prolific killer though is diarrhoeal disease from bacteria like typhoid, cholera, e. coli, salmonella and many others. Safe water interventions have vast potential to transform the lives of millions, especially in crucial areas such as poverty eradication, environmental upgradation, quality of life, child development and gender equality. LifeStraw was developed as a practical response to the billions of people who are still without access to these basic human rights.
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Give free rice to hungry people by simply playing a cool word game

FreeRice is a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Program. Its partner is the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

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