A mobile phone turned into a glucose monitor for diabetes patients, a needle-free handheld device for testing anaemia among women in village, an ultrasound probe that can be attached to a smartphone via USB and a rapid blood test to detect a heart attack.

These are some of the bold ideas from Indian innovators which have won seed grants totalling $1 million (Rs 5.4 crore) in an international competition, Grand Challenges Canada, funded by the Canadian government. Progress: These tech-minded inventors hope to use technology to solve age-old health problems

Prize money

Each innovation will get $100,000 (Rs 54 lakh). The idea is to help solve age-old and emerging health problems across the developing world using new technologies.

Vikrant Institute of Technology and Management, Gwalior is developing a tuberculosis diagnostic kit based on lipid antigen detection in patient's body fluids for early detection. Studies have proved that the test is extremely sensitive and specific for early diagnosis, and is also cost effective.

Sidhant Jena of Janacare Solutions, a Bangalore-based start-up, has won the grant for working on a mobile phone-based glucose monitor, which he says can cut down costs by 80 per cent for monitoring diabetes. A needle-free handheld device, ToucHb, has been created to test anaemia

"We plan to reach one million patients in India in five years", he says.

Yet another mobile phone innovation has been created by Sanjoe Jose of Emprenure Labs, Bangalore. Called M-Ultra, it is a low-cost ultrasound scan system which connects the phone to a probe using USB and the phone screen can show ultrasound images, which can be transmitted to an expert using a cloud server.

In order to tackle the problem of anaemia in rural India, Biosense Technologies has developed and tested a simple-to-use, needle-free, hand-held, screening device called ToucHb. The idea is to improve maternal and child health outcomes.

"We need solutions that can be used by village health workers like ASHA, who delivers all healthcare at grassroots level", Myshkin Ingawale of Biosense said.

Early detection

Nitin Kale of NanoSniff Technologies, a start-up incubated at IT Mumbai, is developing an instrument for rapid detection of myocardial infarction among rural populace.

A heart attack is usually difficult to detect early, particularly in a rural setting.

"We propose to employ a microcantilever- based bio-sensing system to detect early cardiac markers like myoglobin that are released in the blood after myocardial infarction. The device can be used even by a qualified nurse at a rural primary healthcare centre," a member of the research team said.

"The programme seeks breakthrough and affordable innovations that could transform the way disease is treated in the developing world - innovations that may benefit health of developed world citizens as well," an official of the Grand Challenges Canada said.
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