Mama ope or “Mothers hope” is the answer to the problem of pneumonia in Sub-Saharan Africa. This respiratory infection is the cause of the death of half a million children under the age of 5 in sub-saharan Africa. What makes this disease even more fatal is the fact that it is often misdiagnosed in Africa. Most often than not, malaria is treated when someone has pneumonia and this usually proves to be fatal.
Ugandan inventor, Brian Thuryabagye knows all too well how fatal pneumonia and its misdiagnosis can be as the grandmother of his close friend and business partner Olivia Korburongo lost her life as a result of a misdiagnoses. This event was one of the driving forces that pushed him to work on and invent a biomedical jacket that diagnoses pneumonia in minutes, faster than any doctor can and a lot more accurately too.
Armed with a goal to reduce the number of young lives claimed by pneumonia, Brian went on a fact finding mission to find out the symptoms of pneumonia. This was done to give him a better idea of what to incorporate in his invention.
After much research and work, Brian was able to come up with the biomedical jacket, Mama Ope, with the contribution of his friend and tutor, Mwikirize Cosmas from the University of Makerere.
The biomedical jacket which measures heart rate, temperature and lung condition works with the principle of a stethoscope only on a larger scale. The jacket which is wrapped across the chest of the patient is designed to check specific points on the patients body for lung inflammation. The jacket which is connected to an app on a mobile phone via Bluetooth then downloads and sends the vital information to the phone.
One of the more important advantages of the biomedical jacket is that it cancels out a lot of human error as the readings are a perfect assessment of the body condition. Brian has won two awards already for his excellent invention although the work is currently in its prototype stage.
Mama Ope according to Brian is literally a ray of hope to mothers who have lost their children to the cold hands of pneumonia over the years due to misdiagnosis. He hopes to perfect his invention and save the lives of thousands of children in Uganda.
