Africa might be seen as the ‘dark continent’ by some, but we really do have some amazing innovators trying to make the world a better place.
Consider Dr. Kit Vaughan from Aceso as an example. Vaughan has qualified for the final round of the annual Innovation Prize for Africa (IPA) by developing a system that can conduct a full-field digital mammography and automated breast ultrasound at the same time.
“Because 40% of women have dense tissue, their cancers cannot be seen on X-ray. Furthermore, a false negative finding can have devastating consequences,” Aceso explained.
It’s world-first in the field of cancer detection; the capture of dual-modality images is significant because there are half a million cancer deaths in Africa. Aceso predicts that this figure is expected to double over the next three decades.
The IPA is a fantastic initiative, inspiring innovators on the African continent to develop some of the best solutions for African problems.
Vaughn shares the ‘health and well-being’ the honour of being nominated as a finalist for this year’s competition with Dr. Imogen Wright of Exatype.
Wright and Exatype have developed software that enables healthcare workers to determine HIV positive patients’ responsiveness to ARV drug treatment.
“A growing number of people on ARVs are resistant to drug regimens, leading to failure of the therapy, exacerbating the continent’s HIV/AIDS burden,” Exatype explained.
What the company does is nothing short of incredible; it processes the highly complex data produced by advanced DNA sequencing of the HIV DNA in a patient’s blood. It detects drugs that are resistant to the patient, producing a report showing which drugs should be avoided.
“Exatype has the potential to contribute towards effectively managing HIV/AIDS in Africa, and also holds promise in helping detect drug resistance for other disease burdens such as Tuberculosis (TB) and malaria,” IPA explained.
The other two South Africans included as top ten finalists are Andre Nel from Green Tower (an off-grid water heating and air conditioning solution based on solar power), and Johan Theron from PowerGuard, a company that helps consumers determine the maximum amount of power supply required for daily operations.
This year’s IPA is the awards’ 5th anniversary event, to be held in in Gaborone, Botswana on 22nd June.
[Image – CC by 2.0/Jack Zalium]
