The Journal of mHealth Vol 1 Issue 4 (Aug 2014) | Page 23

Rolex Awards for Enterprise Recognise mHealth Innovators

Rolex Awards for Enterprise
Recognise mHealth Innovators
The 2014 International Rolex Awards for
Enterprise have recognised innovation in
mhealth by awarding two young laureates for their ground-breaking projects,
that aim to improve healthcare delivery
in Third World countries.
The two are among five winners of the
2014 award. Named ‘Young Laureates’
they were chosen by an international
jury from more than 1,800 nominees
– all under 30 years of age – for “their
leadership qualities and their ability to
harness technology, in an original way,
to improve the well-being of the community and the environment, as well as
to advance scientific knowledge.”
The two honourees are Neeti Kailas for
her work in detecting infant hearing loss
among children in India, and Arthur
Zang who has invented what is believed
to be Africa’s first medical tablet, which
will allow health-care workers in rural
areas to send the results of cardiac tests
to heart specialists via a mobile-phone
connection.

Arthur Zang

tors to heart disease. Yet there are fewer
than 50 heart specialists, most of whom
are based in the cities of Douala and
Yaoundé, leaving rural areas with virtually no cardiac care.
Zang’s patented touchscreen Cardio Pad
could change that. He has invented a
medical tablet, which will allow healthcare workers in rural areas to send the
results of cardiac tests to heart specialists via a mobile-phone connection.
His company, Himore Medical, will sell
the Cardio Pad as part of a complete
diagnostic kit for about US$2,000, less
than half the price of other, less portable, systems.

Cardiac Telemedicine Brings
Hope in Cameroon
The incidence of heart disease is rising
in many low- and middle-income countries around the world due to wealthier
lifestyles and greater longevity. Cameroon is no exception. According to Cameroon’s Society of Cardiologists, some
30 per cent of the country’s 22 million
people suffer from high blood pressure,
which is one of the key contributing fac-

The other components in the kit are a set
of four wireless electrodes and a sensor
that attaches to the patient and transmits
its signals via Bluetooth to the Cardio
Pad. The kit takes a digitised electrocardiogram (ECG) reading of the patient’s
heart function.
The healthcare worker who takes this
reading then transmits this information to a national data centre. Once the
ECG is received, a cardiologist makes a
diagnosis and sends it back to the centre
to be relayed to the health-care worker
treating the patient, along with prescription instructions.
The Cardio Pad has the potential to
become a complete telemedicine tool,

allowing measurement and transmission
of integrated information on a patient’s
health profile, which could help diagnose
many other diseases.
The idea for the Cardio Pad emerged
in 2007, when Zang was finishing his
degree. Interested in applying technology to medicine, he spent a lot of time
in hospitals. On one hospital visit, he
was watching a television programme
showing an ECG being taken. “I said
to myself: ‘I wonder how that works?’”
Cardiologist Professor Samuel Kingué
from Yaoundé’s main hospital became
a mentor, teaching Zang about the type
of software needed for a portable ECG
device and about how to process the
data that comes from the signal.
When Zang began designing the Cardio
Pad, however, financing was difficult.
“I went to the banks, but they wanted
all sorts of guarantees.” So he used a
21st-century solution: he posted a video
about his project on Facebook to raise
funds. This led to a $20,000 grant from
the Cameroon Government, which Zang
used to produce 20 tablets, two of which
are being tested in hospitals in Cameroon.
With his Award funds, Zang will produce
100 tablets, 10 for each of Cameroon’s
provinces. “My goal is to have 500 Cardio Pads being used across Cameroon,”
Continued on page 22

The Journal of mHealth

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