Nimmi Ramanujam working with students
Published September 22, 2015, last updated on September 23, 2015 under Research News
Nimmi Ramanujam, professor of global health and engineering and director of the Center for Global Women’s Health Technologies, has been awarded two National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 grants to work with industry and non-profit partners to develop strategies for wide-scale screening for cervical cancer in East Africa.
The grants represent a collaborative effort between the Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI), the Pratt School of Engineering, the School of Medicine, Zenalux Biomedical in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, 3rd Stone Design in San Francisco and a number of East African institutions, including DGHI partner Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center in Moshi, Tanzania.
Majority of Cervical Cancer Cases Are in Resource-Limited Africa
Cervical cancer affects 500,000 women worldwide each year, and results in more than 270,000 deaths. Because more than 75 percent of cervical cancer cases occur in Africa, where the tools commonly used in America are prohibitively expensive, new solutions must be found.
Current screening efforts—when available—use visual inspection with acetic acid (VIA), similar to what is done in the United States, but without the aid of a magnification device called a colposcope. This lack of instrumentation limits the visualization of important features on the cervix. And because there is only one physician for every 45,000 people in countries like Tanzania, the VIA screenings need to be performed by community health workers in order to achieve scale.
Grant Will Fund Development of Affordable Colposcope
The NIH grants totaling $3.7 million will support Ramanujam’s work to develop and implement a new version of a colposcope whose design resembles that of a tampon with the performance (magnification, resolution, field of view) of a state-of-the-art colposcope. The device, which is connected to a cell phone, is portable and easy to use at the community health level and is a fraction of the cost of current clinical colposcopes.
“One grant will allow us to transform our initial proof of concept device into a product that will be as powerful as a state-of-the-art colposcope for effective cervical cancer examination, but one that is easy to use, hand-held and low-cost for use in the community setting,” said Ramanujam.
The second grant will support the design of technology to be used without the need for a speculum, dramatically increasing the comfort of a gynecological exam with the potential for self-examination, much like self-Human Papilloma Virus testing.
“We hope that this technology will give more women in low- and middle-income countries the earliest possible access to cervical cancer screening,” Ramanujam said.
Students from Multiple Disciplines Can Play a Critical Role
Ramanujam said that students have helped bring this project to fruition. “None of the work we do can be done without students,” she said. Like much of the work in global health, her project requires a multi-disciplinary approach. “We are always seeking students outside of engineering who are interested in using their talents to contribute to this very important health need whether they are in the business school, public policy, social sciences or medicine.”
This story was adapted from a recent article published on the Duke University biomedical engineering website.
