The sudden outbreak of corona virus otherwise referred to as COVID-19 has increased dramatically the demand for the use of a ventilator due to the nature of the attack the virus poses on the human being. Unfortunately, the much-needed ventilators are not available for use in most hospitals.

Patients with severe respiratory distress benefit from high flow oxygen therapy, which is commonly delivered using a High Flow Nasal Cannula (HFNC). HFNCs are prohibitively expensive for low resource settings, so our team aims to create a versatile, accessible HFNC to reduce pediatric mortality from respiratory illness across the globe.

Portable ultrasound probes for use in pediatric cannulation are increasingly available in low-resource settings, but lack of training prevents proper use. Existing simulators are limited by poor anatomical realism or exorbitant costs. No cost-effective, heat stable, and comprehensive model exists to train healthcare professionals through ultrasound-assisted cannulation in low-resource settings.

Medical workers in low-resource communities in Amazonian Peru need an efficient, intuitive tool to effectively visualize the cervix and screen for precancerous and cancerous lesions. 

CLOMAS project is aiming at ensuring 100% protection against coronavirus and other airborne diseases through use of safe cloth mask. This device will be able to sterilize cloth masks at any time hence filling the gap of failure to wash a cloth mask after every use hence ensuring total protection.

Dehydration is a common condition in both a clinical and athletic setting across the world. The current methods of detecting dehydration, such as catheters and blood tests are invasive and often take a long time to get results.

There is currently no reliable and efficient way to detect dehydration.

Cervical cancer is a leading cause of cancer death for African women. Early screening for HPV, the cause of cervical cancer, is often expensive and inaccessible in the developing world. The Rice360 Richards-Kortum lab has developed an HPV test for low-resource settings, but its high hand-assembly costs inhibit mass manufacturing.

Lack of efficient devices for insulin storage and disinfection unit for syringes and needles used for type1 diabetic patients based in low resource settings. Patients store the insulin in clay pots with water placed on sand due to lack of efficient mechanisms for storage and disinfection.

A colostomy bag collects waste from a stoma, an exposed portion of the large intestine due to an ostomy surgery. High-quality colostomy bags are expensive and often unavailable, forcing many patients in low-income countries to resort to homemade solutions. Such methods cause leakage, foul odors, discomfort, and further health complications.

Each year, ~525,000 children under the age of 5 will die from preventable diarrhea-induced dehydration. Intravenous (IV) fluids are a tried and tested means of treatment, but pediatric wards in low-income hospitals will often forgo treatment entirely due to lacking financial or staffing resources to monitor pediatric IV drips.

Intrapartum maternal fever particularly if > 38.5°C, was associated with several transient adverse effects in the newborn. Intrauterine infection is a serious complication during labor at term and is associated with adverse neonatal outcomes. Early and accurate diagnosis is of great concern for both obstetricians and pediatricians.

3.4 million people died in 2019 due to waterborne illnesses, making it a worldwide leading cause of death. Most of these deaths are in low resource settings, where natural disasters, disease prevalence, and a lack of infrastructure means that clean water free of contamination may not be readily available.

Respiratory diseases are among the top ten causes of death in Malawi, mainly due to the scarcity of medical equipment used in respiratory therapy. Nebulizers are efficient in medication administration for such cases. However, these devices are expensive, hence only available in small quantities, and few hospitals.

In developing nations, patients often lack a timely cancer diagnosis due to limited numbers of pathologists available to analyze pathology slides. Without enough pathologists, there can be a significant turnaround time between patient biopsy collection and pathologist diagnosis, causing delayed treatment and poor patient outcomes.

The World Health Organization estimated 3.4 billion people are at risk of being infected with malaria. In 2018, the total deaths resulting from malaria was 435,000. The African region was hit the heaviest. This condition threatens to worsen. The emergence of image processing algorithms promises to reduce these deaths.

Poor drug adherence affects treatment of chronic diseases due to factors like untimely drug administration, unawareness and forgetfulness. This poses grave health and economic consequences like poor disease prognosis, frequent hospitalizations and medication wastage; especially in resource limited settings, and more, in disabled populations, especially the visually impaired.

Our team is addressing the need of easily and quickly sanitizing hands in public places without touching surfaces we are also addressing the need of full body sanitization in public places Hence we came up with touchless sanitizer dispenser and full body decontamination chamber to minimize the spread of virus.

Indoor air pollution from biofuel combustion, such as coal, wood, and dung, is a major cause of premature death globally. Most pollution related deaths occur in low- to middle-income countries, with increased prevalence among marginalized people. Solutions to combat this issue are necessary to promote health outcomes in these regions.

Chronic stroke survivors require rehabilitation more focused on regaining and maintaining hand and wrist movement. Due to lack of insurance coverage and structure of rehabilitation regiment, there is an unmet need for at-home rehabilitation devices that can strengthen hand and wrist movement used for fine motor tasks.

Nurses and medical technicians in low-resource health centers need a low-cost, intuitive, and efficient tool to distinguish between sterilized and unsterilized medical equipment and enforce one-way flow in the sterilization department.

An appropriately-distanced, inexpensive, and fast system to accurately measure body temperature in spite of external climate conditions is needed to screen groups of people while preventing crowd bottlenecking, to detect symptoms of airborne diseases, such as COVID-19, while reducing risk of transmission.

The thermometer guns that measures body temperature by using the forehead as the target organ. The readings from the forehead are directly influenced by the environment hence not very effective in identifying potential persons infected by the corona virus even if they have a fever.

The closure of schools due to Covid-19, has led to an increase in teen pregnancies and early marriages from 43.2% to 60 %. Contributing factors to teen pregnancies Lack of knowledge about safe sex-limited access to the use of contraceptives or condoms and lack of information on birth control services.

Current HIV testing technology requires patients to wait several days for results, which is a challenge for communities far from health clinics. We propose a cassette for a cost-effective HIV viral load assay that measures viral load within hours, increasing testing accessibility in Sub-Saharan Africa with prevalent HIV rates.