ToucHb: Hemoglobin Count Without the Needles

I was browsing over the TED site weeks ago when a video's title caught my attention . It is: "Myshkin Ingawale: A Blood Test Without Bleeding."

Interesting, right?

I thought, "Wow. Another medical breakthrough, thanks to technology." So, I watched the video.

For me, the motivation behind creating this apparatus is really admirable. While it's true that it will be produced for business, the reason that fueled Ingawale to not stop building it despite 32 times of failure, is his vision of eradicating anemia as a cause of death globally. Something that surprised me too.

Ingawale said he wants something that could be used by the village health workers to diagnose anemia. According to his video, he and the rest of his team thought that it should be something easy to carry around, simple and without needles. When he showed how the apparatus can be used it reminded me of a pulse oximeter, which is used to measure the oxygen saturation in our blood. ToucHb, on the other hand can show the hemoglobin count, the oxygen saturation and the heart rate. Both apparatuses work under the principle of photoplethysmography.

It's a general knowledge how technology have changed our lives yet once in a while I can't help but be awed.

Here's the TED video about it:

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