Senegal makes medical robots

INNOVATION: MACHINES CAN DO BASIC PATIENT TESTS

Invention will reduce exposure of doctors and nurses to coronavirus.

Dakar

Senegalese engineering students are throwing themselves at the West African state’s growing coronavirus problem with inventions such as automatic sanitiser dispensers and medical robots.

Youngsters from a top engineering school in the capital, Dakar, have turned their technical skills toward easing pressure on the wards – and are already in talks with hospitals over some of their innovations.

One example is a small robot, dubbed Dr Car, which will be able to measure patients’ blood pressure and temperature, according to students from Dakar’s University-Polytechnic. The university is considered one of West Africa’s best for engineering and technology and is highly selective, with 28 nationalities represented among its 4 000 students.

Lamine Mouhamed Kebe, one of the students who conceived the robot, said the machine would reduce the exposure of doctors and nurses to infected patients and use of expensive protective gear. “We realised that medical equipment was limited,” the 23-year-old added. “We can do something.”

Guided by a mounted camera and controlled via an app, doctors will also be able to communicate with patients through the robot, Kebe said, potentially allowing them to treat people isolated in hard-to-reach rural areas.

Senegal’s coronavirus outbreak was off to a slow start, but confirmed cases in the nation of some 16 million people are increasing. And as with other poor countries in the region, there are fears that Senegal is ill-equipped to handle a large outbreak.

Authorities have recorded more than 1 700 cases to date, including 19 fatalities. Hospital staff in Dakar are also beginning to contract Covid-19.

Faced with an increased threat, front-line Senegalese doctors are taking the young engineers seriously. An initial prototype designed by the students was essentially a small mobile trolley to carry equipment or meals to patients. But Abdoulaye Bousso, the head of an emergency ward in a Dakar hospital, asked for a redesign to include mechanical arms capable of conducting medical tests – an upgrade the students are working on now.

He said the robot could also cut down on their use of expensive bibs and gowns, which must be thrown away. –

Picture: AFP Staff members disinfect a theatre as it prepares to reopen in Yantai. China has given the green light for cinemas, entertainment venues and sports facilities nationwide to reopen.