Smartphone app verifies vaccinations
Cambridge Consultants have developed a technology demonstrator that could eventually help to save the lives of over one million children a year.
They have worked with non-profit organisation Diagnostics For All to produce a smartphone app that accurately assesses the immunity status of a child.
According to product developers Cambridge Consultants, an estimated 1.5 million children from around the world die annually from vaccine-preventable diseases.
In use, a healthcare or aid agency worker takes a swab from around a child’s gumline, which is then transferred to a paper-based diagnostic device.
David Chastain, programme manager at Cambridge Consultants explained that a brief incubation period follows when the sample migrates through the paper layer.
Chris Wagner principal engineer at Cambridge Consultants added that the two-step process takes around 25 minutes.
The paper-based diagnostic device will then change colour depending on the results of the assay.
In theory, it would be possible for the person administering the test to interpret the results visually but this method is prone to errors.
Instead, a healthcare or aid agency worker opens up the app on a smartphone to photograph the test.
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