I am just back from South Africa where I attended the 1st Micro-Med-A workshop on ‘Microsystems Technologies for African Health’.
Here is a short glimpse of what has been exposed and discussed during these 3 days:
The talks were very diverse and addressed 3 main issues:
- The situation in Africa, India or South-East Asia and the burden of infectious diseases
- The technologic, social and safety requirements for Point of Care diagnostic
- State-of-the art microfluidics
This conference was focused on African Health and mostly on infectious diseases diagnostic such as TB, HIV, Malaria or Influenza. Similar issues are faced in countries like India or Malaysia where telemedicine and microdiagnostic have already been implemented with success.
Exciting micro devices were detailed and their potential in improving health is huge! They’re speed, safe, sensitive and low cost. They use blood, breath or saliva, are developed to be easy to use and fit in the specific context of these areas. As a matter of fact, local acceptation from people, doctors and patients is a key factor for these medical devices to be useful.
However, IP and data confidentiality issues were not raised and this is maybe why none of these devices has yet been implemented in Africa.
=> Click here to read the conference report.
=> Click here to read the conference report.
This few days in South Africa also allowed us to go on an incredible game drive in Kruger Park! We got the chance to watch gorgeous animals under the beautiful light of sunset…
