The Journal of mHealth Vol 1 Issue 6 (Dec 2014) | Page 17

Industry News
pregnancy from a distance. This is particularly useful in some parts of Africa
where much of the population lives in
rural areas without easy access to healthcare or readily available means of transport. By using mHealth solutions, medical professionals would be able to flag
potential problems early and provide
the necessary care that reduces risks to
mother and child.
“There is a tremendous amount of
good that mobile technology and digital innovations can bring to improve
the quality of healthcare to those less

fortunate,” said Thierry Zylberberg,
Director, Orange Healthcare. “Together
with USAID, we are creating innovative
mHealth platforms that open up the
opportunities for remote patient monitoring or healthcare workers to make
better-informed decisions and facilitate
quality care for all citizens.”
The goal of the USAID/Orange alliance
is to create a framework for easily replicating these important mobile services in
a number of African countries throughout the region. In West Africa, USAID
and Orange are starting to develop a

regional platform with a menu of mobile
applications that ministries of health,
donors and NGOs could use for consumer education, health worker tools,
mobile money, and data collection.
Orange’s expertise in interoperability
and scalability will ensure that such platforms adhere to local regulatory and
structural organisations. Orange has
been at the forefront of realising Africa’s digital transformation, connecting
people, entrepreneurs, towns and cities,
and delivering innovative services such
as mobile payment. n

Prototype Paper Test can Detect
Ebola Strains
In a case of true health-tech mobility researchers have developed a simple
paper test that uses DNA-programmed
blotting paper to give doctors a simple
disease test that will reveal an infection in
30 minutes for just a few pence.
Researchers have proved the technique
works by developing a prototype Ebola
test in just 12 hours, and using just $20
of materials.
The diagnostic uses a soup of biological
ingredients including the genetic material RNA, which the researchers are able
to freeze-dry and preserve on ordinary
paper.
Team leader Jim Collins, who has joint
appointments at Boston and Harvard
Universities, says the biological powder can be reactivated by simply adding
water, like living powdered soup.
"Once they're rehydrated, these biological circuits function in these small paper
disks as if they were inside a living cell."
Jim Collins is a leading pioneer in the field
of synthetic biology, well known for his
2000 paper showing genetic circuits could
be created in the same way as electronic
circuits can be programmed, helped
launch the discipline. Since then, synthetic biology has become a powerful tool
in fundamental biology, with researchers hacking the genetic programmes of
microbes to study their life processes, or

give them the power to compute using
logic like a digital processor.
Collins' group has previously reprogrammed bacteria to become cellular
data recorders, collecting information as
they pass through an animal's bowels.
But the discipline has required specialist skills, so that few laboratories can
take advantage of the techniques. The
researchers' avowed intention in the new
work, described in the journal Cell, is to
make synthetic biology widely available.

They've definitely succeeded, says Professor Lingchong You, an expert in cellular reprogramming at Duke University.
"This paper-based approach is incredibly attractive. It feels like you could use
it in your garage! It'll give scientists a
synthetic-biology