A UBC invention that transforms a simple cell phone into a portable blood-oxygen tester was one of 19 proposals to receive funding from “Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development,” jointly funded by Grand Challenges Canada, the U.S. Agency for International Development, Norway’s Foreign Ministry, the World Bank, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The “phone oximeter,” was developed by a team led by Mark Ansermino, an associate professor in the Dept. of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics and Guy Dumont, professor in the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
For this Grand Challenge project, they have teamed up with BC Children’s Hospital Dr. Peter von Dadelszen, a world-leading expert on pre-eclampsia. The phone oximeter will be field-tested in Stellenbosch, South Africa, where partners in the project are already working to identify mothers at risk because of high blood pressure.
For more information, visit www.ece.ubc.ca.