Thinking outside the medical box

Our health sector has more challenges than I need to spell out- one of these being the myriad of tribulations that come with importing most, if not all, of our medical equipment. There is the lab technician who cannot read the manual written in German, the power cut that makes it impossible to provide certain services, the flickering lights in the surgery ward…you get where I am going with this. The technological solutions to our health problems are great but not designed- to a large extent-to fit our infrastructure and adapt to some of our circumstances. This article is a simple feature of a few innovations that are designed to provide low-cost medical technology that can be manufactured locally and are energy efficient.Do-it-yourself ECG padsWhy worry about the supply of the pads and conductive gel (used by ECG machines to monitor heart rate) when you can make them yourself using bottle caps, salt and flour? mPedigree (my favorite!)A fake drug spotting system, manufacturers tag their drugs with a code that consumers can enter into their phones, send via SMS for free and receive a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in response as an indication of trustworthiness of the drug.Solar-powered SterilizerMedical instruments used in medical procedures can be sterilized with this reflective TV-satellite dish that has a modified wine bottle filled with water suspended above it: the sunlight reflected off the dish is focused on the bottle, and the steam from the boiling water forced into a pressure cooker with the medical instruments. The sterilizer has been proven to reach recommended heat and pressure levels.The leveraged-chair designWheelchairs with gear-shifting capabilities come at quite the penny.This wheelchair is designed for the rough bumpy roads in rural areas. Re:Motion’s cheap durable prosthesisThis prosthesis for above-the-knee leg amputeesis designed to be worn even in muddy fields and dusty roads: it consists of five plastic pieces and four fasteners that are easy to produce and assemble.Machine to treat JaundiceJaundice can be cured with blue light: the equipment required to do this is pricey in terms of power and the machines themselves. An energy efficient phototherapy device (that goes for $350) has been developed that uses cheap LEDs that last ten times longer than bulbs used in traditional machines.Sanitary pad makerMany women in rural areas cannot afford to invest in sanitary products every month (doesn’t help that rugs and bark are not very hygienic at times). The MIT D-lab is currently testing a machine that makes pads out of banana pulp.The machine would be made from easy-to-find materials like wood and require minimal power. If turned into a small business, it could also generate income for local ‘pad manufacturers’ who provide hygienic pads to their communities.The moral of this story is that there are ingenious ways for us to solve some of the small technological obstacles that come with being a developing nation – cheap solutions that don’t involve heavy shipping costs and electricity bills. For in-depth details on these cool inventions, visit