Engineering news
Nearly one in two Africans over the age of 25 has undiagnosed hypertension, and an estimated 20 million Africans suffer from a cardiovascular disease. A further 80 million Africans are estimated to have abnormally high blood pressure, which can lead to heart failure.
At the same time, Africa’s cardiologists are often stationed in main cities, making heart diagnostics an expensive trip for millions of people living in rural areas.
To help address these problems, an African engineer has invented a mobile medical device which enables heart disease to be remotely diagnosed in 20 minutes in any location.
The device, called the Cardio-Pad, has won the £25,000 Royal Academy of Engineering Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation for being Africa’s first touchscreen medical tablet to enable this level of remote diagnostics. Launched in 2014, the prize aims to stimulate, celebrate and reward engineers who have developed innovations that will benefit Africans.
The technology is a small touchscreen tablet hooked up to electrodes to perform heart-reading and interpretation including ECG tests and wirelessly send the results of cardiac tests to doctors, enabling the first remote heart disease diagnosis. The device has the potential to become a complete telemedicine tool, allowing measurement and collection of integrated information on a patient’s health profile.
The Cardio-Pad can help discover, monitor or rule out heart conditions as a source of pain without expensive trips to cities where cardiologists are based. As in Cameroon, cardiologists are often stationed in main cities, making heart diagnostics an expensive trip for millions of Africans living in rural areas.
Arthur Zang, the inventor of the device says his invention could change the way that Africans access treatment for heart disease, a critical illness on the continent.
Zang commented: “This award has allowed me to measure myself against the best engineers in Africa. I was pushed to the limits, and it has made me a better scientist and a better entrepreneur.
“It has also grown my ambitions for the Cardio-Pad and my company, Himore Medical – which I now aim to grow into a global leader in medical manufacturing.
“I’m also very proud to win for my country. I hope it will help to restore hope to those who still doubt that Africa has a bright future.”
Zang explained that the Cardio-Pad saves time and money because it is supplied free of charge to hospitals and clinics and patients pay a £20 annual subscription for regular remote testing and diagnostics. “This is far cheaper for remote rural populations than travelling many miles to cities to find the nearest hospital (Cameroon has only 50 cardiologists for a population of 22 million).
The health-care worker who takes this reading then transmits this information to a national data centre. Once the ECG is received, a cardiologist makes a diagnosis and sends it back to the centre to be relayed to the health-care worker treating the patient, along with prescription instructions in under 20 minutes.
Zang explains that the Cardio-Pad "has the potential to become a complete telemedicine tool, allowing measurement and transmission of integrated information on a patient’s health profile, which could help diagnose many other diseases. He now aims to set up Cardioglob, an integrated nationwide network of hospitals and cardiologists, allowing comprehensive data management and cardiac services".
In future, Zang also intends to develop a family of medical devices and technologies, such as simple ultrasound equipment, for use in rural areas, and is developing a beeper to allow patients to alert their doctors in medical emergencies.