A team of four University of Melbourne students have invented a medical device that could potentially save millions from the ravages of pneumonia
Melbourne, Australia – 02 May 2012: A team of Victorian university students have invented a digital stethoscope that could help millions in the developing world by assisting in the early diagnosis of childhood pneumonia. The four students, known as ‘Team StethoCloud’, triumphed against four other teams to win the Australian finals of the 2012 Microsoft Imagine Cup challenge. Team StethoCloud consisted of: Hon Weng Chong, Andrew Lin, Kim Ramchen and Masha Salehi.
Now in its 10th year, the Imagine Cup challenges students around the world to use technology and their imaginations to come up with innovative solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems. Team StethoCloud will now move on to represent Australia at the worldwide finals of the 2012 Imagine Cup – once dubbed by Bill Gates as the ‘Olympics of the software world’. The worldwide finals will be held in Sydney in July where national winners from more than 100 countries will gather to compete for the international title.
Pneumonia is the largest killer of children under the age of five, and more children fall victim to the disease than malaria, HIV and measles combined*. According to team lead, Hon Weng Chong, more than 98 per cent of pneumonia cases occur in the developing world where access to medical facilities and treatment can be more limited.
Inspired by their medical backgrounds and passion to make a difference, the digital stethoscope is attached to a smart phone which listens to and digitalizes a patient’s breathing sounds and patterns. Those patterns are then compared against a medical database to deliver an automated diagnosis and treatment plan via an app on the smart phone.
“Sadly, the experience for many parents is that by the time a child is seen by a doctor, it’s often too late – our solution aims to put a stop to this,” said Mr Hon Weng Chong, Team StethoCloud.
“In some countries, parents are known to hold off taking their kids for medical care because they often think a cough is just a cold and the nearest clinic can be a day’s walk away. But what if any mother could diagnose pneumonia? What if a healthcare or community worker on every corner could have the power in their hands to help save a life?” he said.
The team claims that their digital stethoscope is 4,000 per cent cheaper than other commercial solutions in the market today, and they believe it represents a disruptive innovation in the medical space.
A team from the University of Canberra was awarded runner-up status for a smart phone app called ‘Food4Thought’, which aims to tackle food wastage. In their presentation, the team claimed that on average 178 kilograms of food per person per year was thrown out at cost of over $1,000.
Food4Thought is a smart app which tracks the ‘use-by’ dates of food in a pantry and provides notifications when foods are about to expire. In order to reduce waste, it provides recipes suggestions for the expiring food. If the food cannot be used, it encourages donation to nearby charities and food banks. Team Food4Thought consists of Xharmagne Carandang and Paul Du.
Microsoft’s Managing Director for Australia, Pip Marlow, said the finalists were doing the extraordinary and had a mindset that any problem could be solved.
“The magic of the Imagine Cup is that we live in a world today where the power of ideas combined with technology enables us to take control of our destinies and be part of the solution.
“The students show us that leadership can come at any age. For these guys, the world’s toughest problems are not a problem.”
Michael Harte, Chief Information Officer of Commonwealth Bank and a judge at the Australian finals of the Imagine Cup said: “Young people have great passion and energy for improving the world, and regularly demonstrate the imagination to solve long standing problems with new thinking,”
Over 1.25 million students have participated in the Imagine Cup since it started in 2003. This year, hundreds of thousands more will join the movement, coming up with brilliant ideas and technology solutions that have the potential to change people’s lives.
For more information on the Imagine Cup visit: www.imaginecup.com