In a remote clinic in Mbankomo, down a crimson-earthed road in Cameroon, a doctor attaches electrodes to the chest of a patient lying on an examining table. Murmuring reassurances, the generalist records the patient’s heart data on an African-designed touch screen medical tablet. The readings are then transferred wirelessly, over the mobile-phone network to specialists in distant urban centers for interpretation, diagnosis and prescribed treatment.
By making it possible to perform tests, such as an electrocardiogram (ECG) in far-flung villages, the tablet is bringing high-quality cardiac care to remote and often poorly equipped countryside clinics where many Cameroonians go for their health care. It connects rural patients suffering from heart disease, many of whom do not have the means, the time, the contacts or the strength to travel to the big city, with Cameroon’s few, primarily urban-based cardiologists.
The potentially life-saving Cardiopad – designed in Cameroon to address a Cameroonian problem, but which is also widespread across Africa – is the brainchild of 26-year-old engineer Arthur Zang. For now, the heart reading and interpretation are just a simulation – but that will change soon if Mr. Zang gets his way.
The winner of numerous overseas awards and grants, Mr. Zang hopes that his invention – imagine an iPad with home-build software built for deployment in the African bush – will revolutionize cardiac care in Cameroon. And for him, his business is also personal.
“There are a lot of people in my family who suffer from cardiac illness,” he says referring to the recent heart-related death of his uncle. “So personally, this has affected me but above all I would say it has impassioned me, because I know personally the daily existence of people living in the village … I lived myself in a village and I know how difficult it is to get specialist care.”
According to Mr. Zang, Cameroon has only a few dozen cardiologists in a country of around 22 million people and these are clustered in urban centers like the capital, Yaounde, or the main seaport town of Douala. Roughly half of Cameroon’s population lives in rural areas, according to the World Bank, while many others live in urban areas that do not have access to heart specialists.
The Cardiopad has a simple-to-use, touchscreen interface that is adapted to the needs of remote health workers who may lack familiarity with the latest computing devices and the know-how required to use them. In tests by the Cameroonian scientific community, the Cardiopad has proven 97.7 percent reliable. It is solidly built to withstand the humid climate and the shocks incurred while being carried over rutted, often unpaved dirt roads like the one leading to the clinic at Mbankomo. The device is also built to withstand the frequent power cuts experienced in Cameroon and across Africa. Equipped with a battery, it can run independently for around six hours at full power.
Patenting the Cardiopad
He also turned to the intellectual property (IP) system to help advance his work. In December 2011, he applied for a patent via the Organisation Africaine de la Propriété Intellectuelle (OAPI) in Yaounde [see box]. OAPI later granted him a patent (No. 16213) on his technology, covering some aspects of both the software and the hardware.
Obtaining a patent was an important step for Mr. Zang. “I did it to reassure myself,” he said, “also to protect the product, and to have a lot more credibility in the eyes of, for example, partners with whom I wanted to sign contracts in order to be able to produce and then sell the product.”
source: wipo.int
