Smart Jacket

It has been reported that pneumonia is the leading cause of death for children under the age of five. A major contributing factor is that many cases are misdiagnosed in the early stages. This is especially true in underdeveloped countries where access to laboratory testing forces healthcare workers to base diagnoses on simple clinical exams. But a team of Ugandan engineers has developed a “smart jacket” that offers hope in fighting the disease, which claims the lives of 900,000 children worldwide every year.

The “Mama-Ope” (Mother’s Hope) kit includes the jacket and a mobile phone app that analyzes the information to provide a diagnosis up to three times faster than a doctor, with a higher degree of accuracy. Sensors in the jacket record sound patterns from the lungs to detect crackling or bubbling sounds that are characteristic symptoms of pneumonia. It also tracks temperature and respiratory rate. By comparing the results to a database of known cases, the system can provide an estimate of the severity of the disease to better inform the course of treatment. Capturing the data on cloud storage also enables doctors to manage their patients remotely.

The team plans to roll out the pilot product first in Ugandan hospitals and later in more remote health centers and other countries — primarily in Africa and south Asia, where the need is greatest.