Noninvasive Device Detects Anemia

The low-cost screening device connected to a cell phone could save thousands of women and children from anemia-related deaths and disabilities.

The device, HemoGlobe, is designed to convert the existing cell phones of health workers into a "prick-free" system for detecting and reporting anemia at the community level. The device's sensor, placed on a patient's fingertip, shines different wavelengths of light through the skin to measure the hemoglobin level in the blood. On a phone's screen, a community health worker quickly sees a color-coded test result, indicating cases of anemia, from mild to moderate and severe.

If anemia is detected, a patient would be encouraged to follow a course of treatment, ranging from taking iron supplements to visiting a clinic or hospital for treatment. After each test, the phone would send an automated text message with a summary of the results to a central server, which would produce a real-time map showing where anemia is prevalent. This information could facilitate follow-up care and help health officials to allocate resources where the need is most urgent.

Developed by Johns Hopkins biomedical engineering (Baltimore, MD, USA) undergraduates, HemoGlobe offers a noninvasive way to identify women with anemia in developing nations. Soumyadipta Acharya, assistant research professor in Johns Hopkins' Department of Biomedical Engineering and the project's faculty advisor and principal investigator, said the device could be important in reducing anemia-related deaths in developing countries. International health experts estimate that anemia contributes to 100,000 maternal deaths and 600,000 newborn deaths annually.

The HemoGlobe student inventors have estimated their cell phone-based systems could be produced for USD 10 to USD 20 each. At the recent Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development competition, a USD 250,000 seed grant was awarded to the Johns Hopkins students' project.

"The first year we just focused on proving that the technology worked," said 21year old team member Noah Greenbaum, of Watchung (NJ, USA). "Now, we have a greater challenge: to prove that it can have a real impact by detecting anemia and making sure the mothers get the care they need."

"The team members realized that every community health worker already carries a powerful computer in their pocket–their cell phone," Prof. Acharya said. "So we didn't have to build a computer for our screening device, and we didn't have to build a display. Our low-cost device will use the existing cell phones of health workers to estimate and report hemoglobin levels."

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