Smartphone-Diagnosis of Respiratory and Pulmonary Diseases for Developing Countries – a Promising Project of the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth

Smartphone-Diagnosis of Respiratory and Pulmonary Diseases for Developing Countries – a Promising Project of the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth

In the field of student inventions for development aid an inexpensive smartphone-based diagnosis-tool is currently gaining worldwide attention.

The invention: A low-cost spirometer to investigate the volume of inhaled or exhaled air paired with a self-developed smartphone app, which analyses all generated data. The invention helps wherever conventional spirometer devices are not available for reasons of cost: in the monitoring of asthma, chronic bronchitis, restrictive and obstructive pulmonary disease, as well as in pulmonary emphysema.

The at that time 15-year-old inventor of this $35 smartphone-diagnosis-tool, Maya Varma has been sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY). In 2014, a small research grant and the virtual mentorship from an instructor of the CTY enabled her to complete her idea, which she came up with in high school.

Maya Varma has meanwhile won the Intel Science Talent Search 2016, a kind of youth Nobel Prize. The World Bank ranks the smartphone spirometer in World Development Report 2016 as an exemplary invention for development aid.

Read more:

Five CTYers Take Top Prizes at 2016 Intel Science Talent Search. Blog available at http://cty.jhu.edu/about/Awesome%20CTYers/five-ctyers-take-top-prizes-at-2016-intel-science-talent-search

World Development Report 2016. Enabling Digital Development. Six digital technologies to watch. Box 6.1., page 329. http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2016/01/13/090224b08405ea05/2_0/additional/310436360_201602630200216.pdf

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