A team of University of Washington (UW) undergraduate students has won a $100,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to test a low-cost ultrasound system in Africa.
The UW device consists of an ultrasound probe that connects via a USB port to a netbook computer with a touch-sensitive screen. The grant was made as part of the foundation's Grand Challenges Explorations program.
The UW students and faculty had been testing their system this month on pregnant women at the UW Medical Center and Harborview Medical Center. They will now travel to Uganda to test the unit in the hope of using it as a tool to increase access to ultrasound and lower childbirth-related mortality, according to the Seattle institution.
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