Disease Predictor App (Submitted by John Mutisya from Innovation Africa, Tanzania)
The Need
People are often unaware of disease (e.g., Cholera, Diarrhea, and Malaria) patterns such as their correlation to external factors such as weather (e.g., rainy v. dry season), the rate of spread, etc. and are therefore unable to prepare accordingly to prevent and effectively treat its outbreak.
The Challenge
Develop an app for feature phones that can track disease patterns and help with early disease detection and warning signs so that people are better able to prepare for disease outbreak through preventive and reactive measures.
Existing Solutions
Smartphone App: Affordable Disease-Detecting Device
In this app, the mobile’s built-in camera and processing power can be used as a biosensor to detect toxins, proteins, bacteria, viruses and other molecules. This app bears bio-sensing capabilities through which tracking of groundwater contamination can be done. Later, the tracked information can be coupled with the GPS data of phone to locate the origin or spread of pathogens. This system is highly useful to get the complete diagnostic tests of clinics or hospitals as well as check the contaminant in food processing and distribution chain. The best part of this system is it can perform testing immediately, that’s too without much investment. This cradle is wedge-shaped and a series of optical components – lenses and filters – are befitted with it. According to the position of optical components, this cradle holds the phone’s camera. Exactly at the core of the biosensor, a photonic crystal is located. Basically, this photonic crystal is just like a mirror which can reflect the light of only one wavelength. However, it allows the passing of rest of the spectrum. If any biological components like proteins, cells, pathogens or DNA get attached to the photonic crystal then the reflected color wavelength will shift from shorter to longer. Talking about the handheld biosensor, a normal microscope is primed to react to a specific target molecule. There is a slot on the cradle in which a photonic crystal slide is inserted. The reflected wavelength shows as a black gap in the spectrum and after exposure to the test sample this spectrum is re-measured. By measuring the shift of the reflected wavelength, an app comes to know the amount of targeted molecule in the sample. Within few minutes, the entire test gets completed. Although the cradle contains only about USD 200 of optical components yet, it performs the test as appropriate as large USD 50,000 spectrophotometer in the laboratory. Along with it, this device is also portable. Under the study published in the journal Lab on a chip, the team performed the detection of immune system protein. But, any other biological molecule can also be recognised by this.
- Learn more: www.techvedic.co.uk/smartphone-app-affordable-disease-detecting-device/#sthash.Fod6m X4k.dpuf
Uchek
Lets people take urine samples with their mobile device. Obviously, pee and electronics don't mix, so this app instead uses the smartphone's camera to determine what's in urine. Dubbed Uchek, the app involves the user peeing into a cup, putting a color-coded urinalysis strip into the cup, taking of photo of the results, and then letting the app work its magic. Uchek can detect up to 25 diseases, such as diabetes, urinary tract infections, and pre-clampsia. It can also measure the levels of glucose, proteins, ketones, and more. According to Wired, 1,200 sample tests showed that the app was more accurate than humans interpreting the color-coded strips. Uchek is currently working its way through Apple's approval process and Ingawale is also working on an Android app, according to Wired. The app will cost 99 cents and users can buy a packet of strips and a color-coded user guide for $20.
Currently: iPhone and Android
Learn more:uchek.in/index.html
Smartphone app for halting crop diseases
A simple smartphone app could halt the spread of one of the most devastating viral diseases of cereal crops worldwide. At least that’s the hope of Penn State researchers who are creating an app that can demonstrate the value of predicting where and how quickly the barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) will spread within individual fields of wheat, barley, rice, and oats. Just as important, grain growers’ reaction to such an information system will be evaluated. They envision growers, crop consultants, and other agricultural professionals reporting crop and pest data for particular fields via smartphone to be combined with weather-based models. The reporters will then be able to view online maps showing the locations of insects that spread the disease and forecasts of their population movements and changes. BYDV is spread by more than 20 species of aphids that transmit the virus to plants when they insert their mouthparts into the sticky phloem. The infection zaps the plants’ resources, leaving them less able to photosynthesize. The result is a yellowing of the leaves and reduced growth. This damage can cause yield losses of up to 70 percent, and the problem is expected to grow with climate change. The disease is not well reported in Pennsylvania, so its symptoms are often mistaken for poor nutrition. According to Rosa, there are currently no control options once BYDV infects plants, so growers target the insects that transmit it to prevent its establishment. They scout for aphids and apply pesticides when it seems to make economic sense. However, aphid scouting is time consuming and costly, economic returns are uncertain, and the overuse of pesticides can have detrimental environmental effects.“If BYDV was devastating every year, we wouldn’t need a system like this,” Rajotte says. Because the disease is variable and patchy, a warning system makes sense.
Currently: in development stages
Learn more: http://agsci.psu.edu/magazine/articles/2013/winter-spring/an-app-for-predicting-crop-disease-spread
Mobile SMS-based disease outbreak alert system
e.g., crowdsourcing to report through text on first disease outbreaks
- See system in Kenya: http://www.tum.ac.ke/views/default/templates/research/sec_sti/DAY%204/MOBILE%20SMS-BASED%20DISEASE%20OUTBREAK%20ALERT%20SYSTEM.pdf
SMS for Disease Outbreak
http://www.changefusion.org/workgroups/change-tech/information-management/606
DoctorMe, take care of own healt http://www.changefusion.org/workgroups/change-tech/a/608
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