Submitted by Sara Gunn on Wednesday, 21st July, 2010 — News item
Salad Spinner Centrifuge: A Cheap, Ingenious Health Care Tool developed by Rice University students
In a solution short on cost but long on ingenuity, the duo modified a basic, everyday salad spinner into an easy to use and transport centrifuge that successfully separates blood to allow diagnosis of anemia with no electricity. The device costs about $30, can process 30 individual 15 microliter blood samples at a time, and can separate blood into its component red cells and plasma in about 20 minutes...
In rural, under-served and impoverished parts of the world, a positive diagnosis for anemia is a critically important clue when looking for other health problems such as malnutrition, or serious chronic infectious diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS. Until now, blood samples taken in the field would have to be sent to a distant location complete with expensive laboratory centrifuges and electricity, while patients would be left waiting for the results — a lapse in time that can be deadly. Being able to diagnose the condition in real time with "Sally Centrifuge" would allow appropriate treatment to begin before before an illness progresses and a patient's condition deteriorates too drastically.
Comments
nice thanks! - link to ICT4D?
Saskia Harmsen
Wednesday, 21st July, 2010
thanks Sarah for this post. It's good to be aware of the technologies being developed at universities in the US, and their potential appropriateness for addressing challenges face by the health sector in developing country contexts.
I'm not sure i see how this relates to the use of ICTs though - am i missing something?
Cheers! saskia
Inventions in universities
Daniel Vermeer
Monday, 2nd August, 2010
Hi,
Relating to Sara's post, it depends on the technology. For example, a kidney dyalasis machine was created at university of (I forget where) using a blender, enabling its price to decreased by several $1000s.
I thought because it was
Sara Gunn
Thursday, 22nd July, 2010
I thought because it was technology (cheap technology nonetheless) about health issues and improving health through ICT (?) that I could post this. Do I have the wrong idea about what ICTs can be?