A SOLAR-POWERED ECG (electrocardiograph) machine has been developed for third-world and trouble-areas use. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology student Felix Adamczyk says it will be affordable, robust and energy-efficient.
Adamczyk has christened it “Kadiri”, which means “make possible” in the Tanzanian language, Kiswahili.
He came up with the idea of building a solar ECG machine two years ago. At the time, he was concentrating intensively on Africa and had already built various technical devices.
This prompted him to try making a machine that can also be deployed successfully in developing countries.
“It does not make any sense to buy medical equipment from industrial nations and send them to developing countries. You have to adapt the apparatus to suit the local conditions,” Adamczyk said.
Summer 2007 saw him travel to Tanzania to do an internship in a hospital.
This enabled him to experience the state of the medical technology there at first hand.
The biggest eye-opener for him was the fact that you cannot really count on the electricity supply, and fittings and spare parts for conventional ECG machines are hard to come by.
Moreover, the machine should be easy enough to handle that even an untrained person can use it quickly and without needing to carry out any complex processes to achieve a competent result.
On his return to Europe, Adamczyk set about developing Kadiri.
The power is generated by solar cells fitted on the appliance – nothing unusual in that, given that parking meters are routinely fitted with such devices.
Also, the customary high-performance battery that machines might be fitted with in Europe were dispensed with in favour of the traditional lead-acid battery, which is cheap, reliable and readily available.
Also, while conventional ECG machines have disposable stick-on electrodes, Adamczyk used reusable clamp electrodes.
He even changed the printout paper. Conventional paper apparently becomes brittle in tropical environments. It turns out that normal till paper from the supermarket is better. This has been adapted with a millimetre grid directly on to it.
The 21-year-old is currently in his second semester and is concentrating on getting a good set of exam results before figuring out how to commercialise his invention.
As far as launching Kadiri on the market is concerned, however, Adamczyk thinks it is still early days.
“The risk is simply too big for small and medium-sized companies to accept the solar ECG as a product,” he said.
Equally, it appears that founding his own company would also be fraught with risks that he would rather not take for the time being.
Any Dragon’s Den entrepreneurs out there looking for a dead cert winner? If so, get in touch with Felix at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.