Problem: Stress can have both physiological as well as psychological symptoms. When an individual experiences stress, the heart rate increases, blood pressure rises, breathing becomes more rapid and the individual can experience feelings of anxiety and panic. These symptoms occur due to the release of stress hormones i.e., cortisol and adrenaline. Over time, this can cause serious health concerns like high blood pressure, gut issues and migraines. Although cortisol is the main stress hormone, it is involved in many important physiological functions as well. Levels of cortisol rise and fall naturally throughout the day and can spike in response to stress. However, test results for current methods for measuring cortisol levels require several days. By the time a person learns the results of a cortisol test, which may inform treatment for certain medical conditions, it is likely different from the current level of cortisol.

Solution: The Smart Bio-Feedback Device has the following key features to cater the problem:

• It is a comprehensive portable device attached at the back of smartphones.
• It is a user-friendly reliable biofeedback device
• It is designed for continuous non-invasive monitoring of various physulogical parameters to detect stress and anxiety level in efforts to manage stress caused by daily ongoing activities.
• The device embeds highly precise sensors, able to sense even the weakest bodily signal, allowing the device to perform portable health check-ups.
• Data derived from the investigation is logged and analyzed through integrated clinical algorithms predicting stress levels.
• The Smart Biofeedback device provides healthcare providers with data regarding the level of stress experienced by the individuals, which provides information on items such as daily activity levels and mental health condition, which might be affecting the individual’s decision making and performance.

Problem: Inappropriate patient positioning and abrupt movement during administration of spinal and epidural anesthesia may cause clinical complications.

Solution: The Epidural Chair caters to the problem with the following features:

• It is a comprehensive portable device attached at the back of smartphones.
• Low-cost
• Patient-friendly positioning device, which is used to position patients appropriately, in a safe and secure manner, prior to epidural and other spinal anesthetic procedures.
• Works to encourage cervical, thoracic and lumbar flexion by helping the patient maintain a firm position.
• Increases efficiency of clinicians in operating rooms, labor and delivery suites and other places, where epidurals and spinal procedures are performed.
• Customized for use with both male and female patients
• Supports patients weighing up to 440 lbs. in a variety of body sizes and weights.
• Supports and correctly positions the target spinal area, which directly reduces chances of error.

The Epidural Chair was designed and tested in collaboration with the Department of Anesthesiology, AKUH.

Problem: The COVID-19 pandemic led to a global surge in the demand of nasal swabs, which are used to obtain respiratory specimens and are a core component of COVID-19 testing kits. Their lack in supply impeded the early diagnosis of COVID-19 in patients ¹. For low - and middle-income countries (LMICs), with weak health systems and limited financial resources, bidding against developed countries to purchase scarce global supplies, became challenging ².

Solution:The 3D-printed Nasal Swab for use in COVID-19 testing kits has the following key features:

• Cost-effective due to 3D printing
• Safe
• Enables self-sampling
• The Nasal Swab was developed in collaboration with Dr. Zahra Hassan, Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. The clinical trials were conducted and completed at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), Karachi.

¹Webber Lauren, Jewett, Christiana. Testing Swabs Run In Short Supply As Makers Try To Speed Up Production. March 18, 2020. NPR.org. Retrieved from

²McMahon, D. E., Peters, G. A., Ivers, L. C., & Freeman, E. E. (2020). Global resource shortages during COVID-19: bad news for low-income countries. PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 14(7), e0008412.

Problem: Evidence suggests that high-risk pregnancies can benefit from the continuous monitoring, contributing to the well-being of both, the mother and the fetus.

Solution:The Wearable Maternity Sensor is a digital fetal monitoring system with the following key features:

• Detection of fetal locomotor activity patterns to predict the size and health of the fetus.
• Portable, wearable highly sensitive sensors transducers for monitoring and detection of fetal movement and kick target force along with muscular stiffness
• Collection and transmission of data on parameters such as fetal and maternal heart rate, uterine contractions and fetal movements.
• Utilization of Artificial Intelligence (AI), to analyze acquired data to inform the physician of the fetal health condition and predict the size of the baby.
• The data generated from the device helps signal fetal distress to physicians in a timely manner through the smartphones.

Problem: Keeping track of the diverse range of surgical instruments, which are used during a general surgery, is a tedious and risky task because:

• Existing protocols and procedures require the counting of all surgical instruments numerous times during a surgical procedure. It relies on human consistency and accuracy in settings, which are characterized by time pressure, distractions, and unexpected interruptions.
• Instruments are often left behind in a patient’s body cavity. The incidence of retained surgical foreign bodies (RSFB) is 1 in every 5,500 surgeries.
• RSFB result in critical or even fatal consequences.
• RSFB require corrective procedures and litigation is involved and results in unnecessary financial implications.
• RSFB adversely affect the reputation of health care professionals and health care organizations offering treatment.
• Surgical instruments continuously move to and from sterilization, storage and operating rooms, making them easily susceptible to misplacement or to the addition of unrelated instruments.
• Unplanned procedural changes during surgeries - with participation of more than one surgical team.

Solution: The Surgical Tray has the following features to cater to problems mentioned above:

• Identification, tracking, and helping to manage the inventory of surgical instruments pre- and post-surgery by employing vision-based artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning technology.
• Real-time monitoring in an operating room; having a real-time knowledge of every surgical instrument’s location is an essential part of the computer-assisted application and system.
• Reduces OR planning and surgery time
• Improves efficiency of surgeons and OR staff
• The data generated from the device helps signal fetal distress to physicians in a timely manner through the smartphones.
• Reduced overall hardware cost.
• Interoperability: The surgical tray system uses a wireless cloud-based system for data

Problem: Conventional ECG devices limit the mobility of patients when being used. There is a need to monitor patients with cardiovascular diseases in settings outside the hospital.

Solution: AKU’s electrocardiography (ECG) device has the following key features:

• Detects heartrate and rhythm: The proposed product records heartrate and rhythm continuously in real-time.
• The 3-Lead ECG enables communication with an application that can display a diagnosis of the heart of the patient: helps detect bradyarrhythmia, tachyarrhythmia and atrial fibrillation.
• Bluetooth-enabled: transmits the signals wirelessly in real-time to its mobile application
• Flexibility allowing it to be adjusted when placed flat against the chest. It has a rotatable cover around the axis making the device making the comfortable for patients.
• Handheld and portable device with a small portable cardiac monitor that can be attached to the backside of a smartphone’s case or carried separately.
• Standalone device as it does not require any external devices and functions independently to acquire data from the user.
• Ideal for remote areas, enabling the monitoring of patients outside of conventional clinical settings, such as in the home or in a remote area without the supervision of a health care provider, which may increase access to care and decrease healthcare delivery costs.
• Real-time data transfer to receive the ECG signal and display the captured ECG data.
• Reusability because it uses a rechargeable battery than increases reusability and is economically feasible.
• Accuracy since the portable ECG uses 3 leads that ensure accuracy in comparison to the conventional ECG.
• Choice of electrodes is available. The portable ECG is available for use with dry electrodes and conventional gel electrodes.
• Suitable for a broad category of users, including paediatric and adult patients of all genders.

Problem: The monitoring of physiological parameters non-invasively and continuously in real-time such as blood pressure, oxygen saturation level and ECG, requires the use of multiple medical devices for each parameter, i.e., pulse oximeter, sphygmomanometer, and an electrocardiogram (ECG)

Solution: The Glove, accompanied by a mobile application, acts as a wearable diagnostic monitoring device, with the following key features:

• Measurement of several physiological parameters — e.g . , blood pressure using a handcuff, blood glucose , oxygen saturation level with the help of an infrared sensor embedded within the index finger, electrical activity of the heart , monitored simultaneously , thereby avoiding the inconvenience of using multiple devices separately
• Mobile Application: A microcontroller unit processes the readings acquired, and based on an intelligent algorithm, converts them into a diagnosis and transmits them to the mobile application via the Bluetooth. The processed information is displayed on the LCD and transferred to the mobile application.
• Portable Device that is small, comfortable, light and easy-to-carry
• Real-time monitoring by the computing server’s communication with the glove to
• Utilization in Remote Areas / Settings that especially for a patient that is bed - ridden, has difficulty or inconvenience in moving, is hospitalized, is disabled and others. It is also useful for teleconsultations from remote settings, or any location where specialists are not available (i.e. small towns and rural areas).
• Sterilizable / Reusable because of a washable woolen material with waterproof electronic circuitry, thereby reducing cost.

Problem: Low- and middle-income countries, like Pakistan and Afghanistan, report some of the worst health outcomes in reproductive maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) indicators, despite considerable investments in infrastructure and human resource development. Health systems suffer from inefficiencies caused by underperformance of health workers and lack of accountability and transparency, resulting in poor governance. Over the past decade, digital health technologies have been increasingly leveraged to improve health service delivery and information systems from the community level to district and national levels by equipping health workers with supportive tools to provide better care in communities.

Solution: Hayat is a mobile application, which aims to improve the quality and coverage of and access to child vaccination and reproductive, maternal and child health (RMNCH) services by digitalising health worker activities. It is specifically designed for use by vaccinators and community health workers during community visits or within the premises of health facilities.
The application has the following features:

• Maintains a separate family profile containing health records of each family member as well as that of the family collectively.
• Enables search of the profiles through the assigned family numbers, National Identity Card (NIC) numbers, mobile phone numbers, vaccination card numbers, fingerprints or QR codes.
• Contains registration forms to register families and their members.
• Includes the graphical display of the growth chart; profile display of the nutritional record
• Includes illness record for adults and children
• Contains a comprehensive record of vaccinations and their schedule
• Maintains pregnancy records and has forms for antenatal, delivery and postnatal visits
• Enables stock management of supplies with respect to area the health worker serves.
• Data synchronization (offline and online)
• Being a patient-centered app, enables vaccinators and health workers to provide improved care to mother and child at their doorstep via mobile health technologies.
• Reports data on a wide range of parameters, such as reproductive and maternal health care, child growth and illness, immunisations and referrals.
• Hayat's real-time, GPS-powered tracking system allows health care administrators to remotely monitor field activities of health workers conveniently.
• Tracks coverage of services and generates reports on key indicators in efforts to improve transparency and accountability of health systems, thereby improving overall governance.

Note: Hayat is an innovation jointly funded by the Aga Khan Foundation and the Government of Canada through the Grand Challenges Canada, through a grant awarded to the Aga Khan University. The patent application is a result of the grant funding.

Problem: Conventionally, multiple diagnostic devices are used to screen, examine, and document various regions of interest of the human body. The examination of the skin, eye, nose, throat, ear, teeth and mouth all require separate diagnostic devices, i.e., the dermascope, otoscope, ophthalmoscope, otolaryngoscope and dental scope are used separately to examine the skin, ear, eyes, ENT (ear, nose and throat), teeth and mouth, respectively. Traditional used devices are large and bulky and lack documentation support, as a result patient electronic health records are not regularly updated or maintained.

Solution: A mobile diagnostic device invented for healthcare professionals practicing in the field of dermatology, otology, otolaryngology, ophthalmology, dentistry, and pathology. The Multipurpose Scope has the following features:

• Converts a smartphone into a diagnostic device with three interchangeable modules that can function as otoscope, ophthalmoscope, oral scope, dental scope and derma scope. Enables the smartphone to examine ear, eye, skin, nose, and dental pathologies, and transmit medical-grade images to a specialist for assessment.
• Mobile application stores patient profiles and relevant information, simplifying follow-up and referral.
• Inbuilt media sharing also allows for rapid and convenient transfer of videos/images when required.
• Powerful and accurate images due to an intelligent algorithm that allows for accurate auto-focus with up to 100x optical zoom and further digital zoom, allowing for sharp medical-grade scalable images.
• App-based and light-based filters further improve image quality without increasing media file sizes.
• Handheld and Portable Device as opposed to traditional scopes which are useful for specialized clinics only. Functions as an add-on to existing smartphones using a software and camera.
• Useful for teleconsultations from remote settings, or any location where specialists are not available (i.e. small towns and rural areas).
• Rechargeable batteries to draw power from a connected mobile device or power bank, allowing for continuous use with little need for replacement batteries.
• Can be developed and sold at a lower cost and utilizes existing (smartphone) devices rather than requiring its own proprietary hardware and software.
• Sterilizable/Reusable Probes enable probes to be sterilized in an autoclave, allowing them to be utilized repeatedly, further reducing costs.

Problem: There is a need to improve the monitoring of intracranial pressure in patients with implanted shunts. Currently, there is a lack of reliable and direct methods to monitor the effectiveness of the shunt in draining cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).

Solution: The CSF Monitoring Device can be integrated with implanted shunts to monitor intracranial pressure non-invasively. It is placed directly on the skin above the shunt tubing and can collect and transmit data in real-time.

• Non-invasive monitoring
• The thermal sensor and IR/laser sensor embedded in the device’s pad are used for flow status measurement inside the tubing.
• Advanced IR sensor technology which comprises an IR transmitter, IR receiver, and non-contact thermal sensor, identifies the molecules in the CSF shunt tubing by categorizing them into infrared absorption bands. This method utilizes machine learning and clinical data for accuracy, and the device applies an infrared absorption technique to determine the nature of the fluid flowing.
• Customizable data collection with a timer circuit that allows for smooth and consistent data collection over a selected time period.
• Seamless data transfer to external storage and mobile devices through a Bluetooth module.
• Incorporating Artificial Intelligence for analysis of the flow, specifically machine learning algorithms that use clinical data to detect flow rate. The algorithm identifies trends in the flow rate using an analyzer and displays the results on a smartphone screen.
• Stand-alone device to display processed data and transfer it via Bluetooth.
• Personalized threshold calibration of variables such as melanin level in the skin and the skin’s thickness.

The concept has the benefit of identifying anomalies in physical parameters of CSF that are associated with specific health conditions for a desired duration.