Image: Sagam Hospital
Cervical cancer is responsible for the deaths of more than 270,000 people annually, and is a leading cause of death in developing nations.
It is estimated that more than a thousand women in Papua New Guinea are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year. However, cervical cancer, unlike many other cancers is relatively easy to detect and treat.
In developed countries like the United States, cervical cancer rates have been reduced as a result of routine routine cervical cancer screening.
However, cervical cancer screening usually requires some form of health care infrastructure which most rural areas across the globe do not have.
This is where the MobileODT is of great importance. Why?
Because MobileODT’s combine the imaging capabilities of smart phones and the colposcope, a device used for imaging the cervix during cervical cancer screening – a fairly expensive devise for many developing countries.
MobileODT’s are relatively cheaper than traditional colposcope’s and are fairly easy for medical practitioners to use.
So far, more than 150 mobile colposcopes that integrate with smartphones to detect cervical cancer have been sold in countries such as, Kenya, Nicaragua, Haiti, and more than 15 other countries.
Since December 2016, Apollo Research and Innovation (ARI), a division of Apollo Hospitals, India’s leading healthcare provider partnered with MobileODT to deploy the Enhanced Visual Assessment (EVA) System across South India.
To date, Apollo ARI and MobileODT have screened more than 500 women across South India, resulting in numerous cases of pre-cancer, caught at an early stage, and saving countless lives.
The EVA system also makes it easier for sexual assault examiners who in the past lugged around bulky, intrusive equipment which would require a number of steps to be undertaken during the process of examining victims of sexual assault.
MobileODT is paving the way towards reducing cervical cancer rates around the world.
For more information, click here, to watch a short clip by BBC’s Amelia Martyn-Hemphill on how MobileODT’s are saving lives in Gambia.
