(task) Getting to the Heart of the Matter in Rural Africa

GRS All Africa RS

4 cover

health, health informatics

> http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/12/arthur-zang-explorer-moments-diagnosing-heart-disease-in-africa-technology/?google_editors_picks=true <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/12/arthur-zang-explorer-moments-diagnosing-heart-disease-in-africa-technology/?google_editors_picks=true>
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> Getting to the Heart of the Matter in Rural Africa
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> On a glass window, computer science engineer Arthur Zang draws numeric algorithms for his portable medical device, the Cardio-Pad.
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> Photograph by Marc Latzel, Rolex Awards
> By Gary Strauss
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> PUBLISHED December 9, 2016
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> Much of Africa lacks access to basic medical care. And as for acute care in rural areas where hospitals and specialists are rare? Even more problematic.
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> But in Cameroon <http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/cameroon-guide/>, Arthur Zang is ushering in a new era of cardio care. His Cardio-Pad is about the size of an iPad mini but has huge potential to treat cardiovascular patients in remote central Africa and beyond.
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> A Cardio-Pad is tested on a patient at Cameroon's Mbankomo Hospital.
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> Photograph by Marc Latzel, Rolex Awards
> Zang's patented, battery-powered touch-screen device performs tests such as electrocardiograms on patients in even the most remote areas, with results sent wirelessly over mobile networks to heart specialists for diagnosis and treatment. That’s a godsend in a country with 23 million far-flung residents but just 60 cardiologists, most of whom are concentrated in Cameroon’s largest cities, Yaounde <https://www.lonelyplanet.com/cameroon/yaounde>and Douala.
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> His Invention Brings Life-Saving Heart Care to Rural Africa
> Zang, a computer science engineer, began toying with merging technology and medical care in 2009, when he was attending college in Yaounde. While he interned at a local hospital, his mentor became cardiologist Samuel Kingue, who taught Zang about heart-monitoring equipment and inspired him to create a portable device that could help detect cardiovascular diseases, an emerging health issue <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3878116/> in Cameroon.
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> Following graduate school, Zang started developing heart-monitoring computer software. Determined to build his own portable device, he learned about electronics and computer hardware through the Internet.
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> He was well into development when his uncle died from a stroke. “This gave me extra motivation to see the project through,’’ he says.
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> Lacking venture capital, Zang convinced his mother, a nurse, to obtain a bank loan for initial funding that enabled him to complete a prototype. Needing further funding, Zang produced YouTube videos <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXYDAxEahWs> to highlight the Cardio-Pad, attracting money from Cameroon's government.
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> This, combined with funding from his 2014 Rolex Award for Enterprise <http://www.rolexawards.com/40>, allowed Zang to improve the Cardio-Pad's functionality by expanding a four-sensor prototype to a 12-sensor model, which he says provides a broader heart diagnosis. (Signals from wireless electrodes attached to a patient enable the Cardio-Pad to assess heartbeat, the size and position of the heart's chambers, and any damage. The results are relayed to a cardiologist, who downloads the data remotely and sends back a diagnosis and treatment protocol).
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> Zang worked with a Chinese manufacturer to build 30 Cardio-Pads. He's since started Cameroon-based Himore Medical Equipment <https://himore-medical.com/about>, which produces Cardio-Pads and diagnostic kits for about $3,200. So far, Himore has sold nearly 70.
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> Zang, 29, hopes to expand sales throughout Africa and beyond and to eventually develop a broader array of portable medical devices.
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> “Millions can benefit from our work,” Zang says, “potentially around the world.”
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> National Geographic produced this content as part of a partnership with the Rolex Awards for Enterprise <http://www.rolexawards.com/40>.