THE POWER OF THE ENTREPRENUER

     Sputnik News today had an interesting story from Uganda about a new medical breakthrough in treating and diagnosing pneumonia. The disease is a major killer worldwide, but especially in Africa, where its symptoms mimic equally deadly malaria and often lead to misdiagnosis.

     So, a 26-year old Ugandan engineering student named Olivia Koburongo, who lost her mother to pneumonia hit up an innovative idea, using Smart-Technology. With a team of other engineering students and medical professionals, they designed a kit which she calls, Mama-Ope, or 'Mother's Hope'. The kit contains a type of jacket with biometric sensors which can be downloaded on a Bluetooth device and the results translated through a special app.

    24-year old Bryan Turyabagye, another engineer who worked on the project pointed out that the jacket can give a more comprehensive diagnosis of pneumonia symptoms in one application than doctors can with a routine examination. Preliminary tests have shown that the jacket can produce an accurate diagnosis four times faster than a doctor without the possibility of human error. The results can also be uploaded so that professionals nationally---and potentially worldwide---can access them.

   So far, the prototype is being patented but on trial-runs at some Ugandan hospitals. If successful, they plan to deploy it to remote regions and eventually other parts of Africa.

    "The problem that we're trying to solve is diagnosing pneumonia before it gets severe." Koburungo told the press. "And we're also trying to circumvent the problem of too little manpower in hospitals. Currently we have a doctor-to-patient ratio of 1:24,000 in Uganda."

     Sputnik reported that the kit is the predicted winner of the 2017 Royal Academy of Engineering Africa Prize, which is valued at $31,000. The team hopes to use the prize money to begin mass-production of the kit.

     We may well see the Mama-Ope kit in America within a few years; and it's drawn the attention of WHO and UNICEF who are anticipating its approval for use in other underdeveloped countries.

      It is interesting as a side commentary that we have a Millennial-Generation orphaned Black woman in third-world Uganda who just developed a technology that will save millions of lives worldwide, while her American counterparts are storming through the streets in obscene pink hats, setting cars on fire and threatening to 'unbirth' the nation. 

    Some interesting food for thought.