In 2009, EWH announced the beginning of a Design Competition that would allow chapters from around the world to submit designs. The main criteria for the competition was to improve the health care in developing nations through the means of a technical solution. (http://ewh.org/index.php/programs/technology/competition/)
The 2009-2010 EWH Design Team entered the competition with our prototype of the Automated Parasite Detection System (APDS). The APDS focuses on diagnosing malaria in developing nations. Malaria is a leading cause of death in Africa and the current gold-standard for diagnosing it requires a highly skilled human technician, making the procedure prone to human error. As a team, we analyzed the steps required for a diagnosis and took to automating the process.
While we didn’t win the EWH Design Competition, we were accepted to present our prototype at the Biomedical Engineering Society’s Annual Meeting in Texas and received positive feedback from the community.
After another iteration on the prototype, we entered our design into the James Dyson Awards. Sir James Dyson is the head of Dyson UK (most famous for the Dyson bladeless fans, vacuum cleaners, and hand dryers) and his charitable trust (the James Dyson Foundation) organizes the annual competition. The 2010 James Dyson Awards have named our entry as the Canadian National Winner! As the winner, we received an all-expense paid trip to the UK to tour the Dyson R&D labs as well as meet Sir James Dyson!
While the EWH Design Competition was a starting point for the team, it is by no means the end. The team members have plans to continue the development into a device that will eventually be used in developing nations.