Ten Innovations in Global Health
Technology and ingenuity applied to real problems can transform people’s lives—here's how
The Jaipur FootProblem: For ten million poor people around the world who are missing limbs or suffer from serious deformities, purchasing standard artificial limbs is impossible: they cost $8,000 in the U.S. or Europe.
Solution: Develop a low-cost alternative with help from engineers at the Indian space agency. First made from rubber by graduate student Ram Chander Sharma in 1968, today’s Jaipur foot and limb prosthetics have advanced through many generations.
Cost: $35 for the limb and $35 for the metal rods to attach the limb
Deployment: 20,000 artificial limbs are fitted free of charge every year in India, and workshop camps have been held in 20 countries to share the technology.
Tata Swach Water Filter
Problem: Lack of access to clean water spreads diseases such as cholera, hepatitis A and diarrhea to over 884 million people.
Solution: A nanotech water purifier that uses ash from rice production to filter out microorganisms. The Tata Group of India—famous for introducing the world’s cheapest car in 2008—now has plans to do the same for the water filter.
Cost: $22
Deployment: Sales began in December 2009; the target is to sell three million units in the next five years.
Photo: © The Tata Group
Adspecs Adaptive Eyewear
Problem: Corrective eyeglasses are needed by more than a billion people in developing countries. Without them, people are trapped in low-paying jobs and have an increased risk of becoming blind.
Solution: Oil-filled glasses that the patient adjusts to his or her vision and later seals for permanent use. Adspecs were developed by Joshua Silver, an atomic physicist at the University of Oxford.
Cost: Currently $20 per pair, with a target price of $1
Deployment: Over 30,000 pairs are already in use in the developing world.
Innovations in Medical Diagnostics
Rapid diagnosis is the crucial first step towards recovery. But in the developing world the diagnosis of many diseases depends on having trained health workers in centralized locations using expensive equipment, any or all of which may not be available. A range of mobile, robust and cheap new tools, such as the four shown here, will revolutionize diagnosis and have a massive impact on health outcomes.
Paper Diagnostic
Problem: Screening for multiple infectious diseases is a complex, time-consuming process requiring microscopes, immune-assays and gene-based testing.
Solution: A paper chip that reacts to a drop of blood. Developed by George Whitesides, a chemist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the chip’s color changes reveal the presence of different infectious agents.
Cost: Pennies
Deployment: First chips could be available by 2011
Photo: George Whitesides
DxBox Microfluidic Diagnostic System
Problem: Antimalarial and antibiotic drug resistance in Africa and around the world is growing, in part because people don’t have access to sophisticated diagnostics that could say whether they just have the seasonal flu.
Solution: A handheld computer diagnostic device that uses microfluidic chips to test for malaria, measles, dengue, Rickettsia and typhoid using standard immune assays. DxBox, created by Paul Yager, a bioengineer at the University of Washington, can also amplify and read DNA for the same diseases.
Cost: Less than $300
Deployment: Production could start in 2011 via Redmond, Washington–based Micronics.
LavaAmp Gene Copier
Problem: For some pathogens, identifying their incriminating DNA first requires boosting gene numbers with a precision thermal cycler. The cyclers each cost more than $2,500.
Solution: A low-cost gene copier called LavaAmp that can be powered with a computer’s USB port. Bioengineer Rob Carlson, LavaAmp’s developer who runs the Seattle-based firm Biodesic, believes it has the greatest potential in the rural U.S. south, which lags behind on gene-based diagnostics
Cost: $200-$300
Deployment: Fundraising for large-scale production.Photo: Aaron Rowe
Cellscope Cellphone Fluorescent Microscope
Problem: Patients, often in a severely weakened state, have to travel miles to the nearest hospital for a professional diagnosis of tuberculosis.
Solution: Attach a small light microscope to the camera of a standard cell phone and use an LED bulb to visualize tuberculosis bacteria tagged with fluorescent markers. Images can then be transmitted to experts for analysis and monitoring. The CellScope was designed by Daniel Fletcher of the University of California at Berkeley.
Cost: Prototypes cost researchers about $1,000.
Deployment: A pilot study is to be sponsored by Microsoft Research and other partners.
Photo: David Breslauer
Peepoo Toilet Bag
Problem: An estimated 2.5 billion people lack sanitation facilities, causing pollution and the spreading of disease.
Solution: A biodegradable bag that can be used as a toilet, sealed, and four weeks later works as a sanitary, natural fertilizer. Peepoo is a real gift to sub-saharan Africa, where soils are degrading due to lack of fertilizer.
Cost: 2 to 3 cents
Deployment: In October 2009, a pilot project was launched in a Kenyan slum with 20,000 residents.
Photo: Ashley Wheaton
PATH Jet Injector
Problem: Acute shortages of sterile needles and trained lab workers means that needles are reused in many parts of the world. Consequently, injections meant to save lives spread disease.
Solution: A jet injector that uses air pressure to propel vaccines through the skin as a fine stream fluid—no needle required. Unlike previous incarnations from the 1960s, this new model from Seattle-based PATH uses disposable vials to eliminate contamination problems.
Cost: Not available
Deployment: Studies in Brazil continue to test that it is as effective as needle-based injections.
Photo: Courtesy of PATH
The Photonic Fence
Problem: Malaria kills 1 million people every year. Eradication of the disease requires novel ways of stopping the mosquitoes that transmit the parasite.
Solution: Track insects, identify them based on their wingbeat frequency, and destroy select targets with a high-powered laser. Intellectual Ventures of Bellevue, Washington is developing this high-tech “photonic fence.”
Cost: Not available
Deployment: Unknown
Photo: Ryan Smith, courtesy of Intellectual Ventures
