SZABIST graduate Adnan Haider and his team (ImaGyn) at Duke University, North Carolina, won $ 100,000 in the CUREs competition by developing a device to facilitate prevention of cervical cancer in the developing world. This device, the cerviScope, is a portable one which will cost roughly 95 per cent less than comparable technology in US-based hospitals.

Cervical cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women. Over 260,000 women die every year due to this disease with 80 per cent of these cases occurring in the developing world. Although cervical cancer is highly preventable, this problem is overlooked by most public health organisations.

ImaGyn has garnered immense support from the gynecology community in Duke Hospital and in St. Croix Hospital in Haiti during the development of the cerviScope.

Combining efforts from Pakistan, Hong Kong, India and the United States, team members Theo Tam, Wynn Xiao Wu, Adnan Haider, Gauravjit Singh and Ram Balasubramaniam expressed their hopes for the global community, “We’re not here to change the world. Our modest ambition is to save the lives of 19,000 women in the next five years by helping them get access to cervical cancer screenings.”

CUREs aims to bring medical technology to the developing world in order to solve public health problems and promote entrepreneurship.