Top 5 medical inventions by Africans that are changing the world

By Amos Fofung [caption id="attachment_61355" align="alignnone" width="780"] Cardio Pad[/caption] Long gone are the days when all the African continent was renowned for was its cultural heritage, agricultural prowess, abundant minerals, strong reproductive men, basic societal problems, fetish traditions and a great importer of Western products and technology. Today, Africa present’s herself as “the future’s” hope and is making considerable strides towards that; with her youths taking on the world. The continent regarded foremostly as the “dark continent” has over the last decade stun the world. News about people of African descent flood the media daily due to astonishing achievements in their respective spares. From top-notch intellectuals to the world highest paid engineers to the African kid coding for Uber, outstanding financial experts, artificial intelligence, sportsmen and women, and dozen others, African youths the world over are actively designing tomorrow and changing the narrative one day and an invention at a time. As mother Africa expands and grows from a laggard to a challenger, competing with Western economies, these top five inventions by African youths are changing the world providing renewed hope for humankind. This is the bleeding-edge of African innovations. Below is arguable the top five medical inventions from Africa that has taken on the world. Mama-Ope - Uganda The world over, pneumonia is responsible for 16% of all deaths of children under five with the death rate also considerably high among adults. This is largely due to the fact that diagnosing the illness is often very slow. Faced with this, Uganda inventor Brian Turyabagye took decided to invent the biomedical smart jacket proven to diagnose pneumonia four times than a medical doctor does. The award-winning invention is gaining momentum with additional upgrades added to perfect the life-saving jacket from Uganda. Brian Turyabagye and his work partner Besufekad Shifferaw showing off the biomedical smart jacket. Koniku Kore - Nigeria For Nigerian-born Oshi Agabi, the future remains unknown and is all about now. Creating technologies that solve real-life problems. His invention, the Koniku Kore has the capacity to detect the smell of explosives and cancer cells. The tech-enthusiast who obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Lagos before furthering his studies in physics and neuroscience in Sweden and Switzerland says his creation can be used for security, agricultural, military, and health situations. Unveiled in Tanzania in 2017, Oshi expressed hopes that it could be used as a more effective means of airport security to scan numerous guests and also deployed in hospitals as the device is equally adaptable for use to identify different diseases. Cardio pad – Cameroon At just 28 years old, Cameroonian Arthur Zang is the inventor of a touchscreen heart-monitoring tablet that has revolutionized medicine in remote areas. His Cardio pad enables heart patients in remote areas to access healthcare without journeying to the cities where most heart specialists work. The tablet comes with four electrodes, which are attached to the patient's chest to determine whether their heart is functioning normally. The data is then wirelessly transmitted to the tablet and sent, via a mobile phone, to a cardiologist who can interpret the data in under 20 minutes and refer any prescriptions needed to the patient. The award-winning device is currently deployed in most African countries and Asia as the world continues to embrace it. Dr. Ndjomo Mba, director of the hospital of Mbankomo and Arthur Zang testing the Cardiopad with patient Jean Abada. Usalama - Kenya For this trio Kenyan developers, Marvin Makau, Edwin Inganji, and Kenneth Gachukia, communication could save lives and that is what their Usalama App seeks to achieve. The app’s panic button sends a distress signal with the shake of a phone to emergency services, the needy person’s next of kin and other Usalama users within 200 meters. In case of an accident or if confronted with a medical or emergency situation, users of the app can immediately send distress signals by barely shaking the phone three times. This will alert first responders, sharing your live locations so they can come to your rescue. BeSpecular – South Africa Commonly regarded as the app “leading eyes to the blind”, South African Chris Venter though blind can now see through the eyes of volunteers the world over who lend their eyes to him and thousands of the BeSpecular blind users. After losing his sight to a virus, Chris, a former chef was determined to keep cooking and that was when the idea of eyes lending downed on him. Once a request is submitted via the app, a handful of volunteers (over 10.000 subscribers), or so-called "sightlings", receive a notification on their smartphones and can from there guide the blind on whatever they want to do. Be it cooking, crossing the road, walking or any general thing they might need eyes for. With users in over 50 countries the world over, the question of if BeSpecular can help the blind to see it has popped up on several occasions.