Fingerprint system aims to connect 10 million developing world health volunteers
A mobile phone based system that provides an on the ground means of capturing patient information in developing countries has won the inaugural Global Health Hack Day, and event organised by the Humanitarian Centre and the Cambridge University Technology and Enterprise Club (CUTEC).
Based on technology by Medic Mobile which uses low cost mobile phones containing specially adapted network independent SIM card applications, the team of Shruti Badwar, Mariya Chhatriwala and Toby Norman created a fingerprint ID system to meet the challenge set by Medic of improving the efficiency of ID capture on the ground in developing countries.
The student team had a week and came up with a fingerprint ID system that could be easily to deployed to the 10 million plus community health volunteers that operate in the developing world and for whom a mobile phone is now an essential tool.
They will now go on to Idea Transform to develop the idea as a potential business opportunity further. A free place on the bootcamp, which runs from 20 to 22 April, was one of the prizes for winning the Global Hack Day and will give the team access to an excellent group of technology business mentors.
"We're sure that the Medic Mobile team will be able to further develop their project at the Idea Transform weekend, using the innovation they've already demonstrated to help deliver better healthcare to communities around the world," said Anna-Joy Rickard, director of the Humanitarian Centre.
Idea Transform aims to team people with ideas to those with business, marketing and technical skills to develop meaningful and innovative projects over the course of one intensive weekend.
At the end of the weekend a judging panel will select those projects that show the most promise and Idea Transform will then work closely with them to provide on-going mentoring and support. Tickets can be purchased at www.ideatransform.org
Idea Transform is also holding a free taster event tomorrow night in Cambridge – tickets for this can be booked via http://ideatransform.org/archives/528
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