Kisumu County, Kenya – The EVA System mobile colposcope will be utilized for a new pilot study in Kenya to address Kisumu county’s cervical cancer burden. Kenya faces approximately 4,800 new cervical cancer cases and 2,451 deaths annually. The Kisumu County Department of Health and GE Healthcare have agreed to conduct an “Early Detection Breast and Cervical Cancer Pilot Study” to address these issues by increasing health system capacities and by providing new technologies to improve access to care. The goal of the study is to create an efficacious and sustainable early breast and cervical cancer intervention at the primary healthcare level.
Members of the Kisumu County Health Management team being introduced to the EVA System
For the cervical cancer screening, the pilot will deploy several units of the EVA System, designed and produced by MobileODT. The EVA System mobile colposcope is a portable affordable and internet-connected medical device equipped with an ultra-bright light source and a powerful magnification lens for enhanced examination. The device can easily be integrated into physical examinations at the point of care, and can support early detection of cervical cancer.
With appropriate training of frontline healthcare workers, women can be appropriately screened and referred for secondary management, if needed. The EVA System builds on the impressive cancer policy focus in Kenya, and globally, to enable better, more reliable tools to empower health workers currently screening with Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA) to vastly improve the positive predictive value of their diagnosis to reduce over-treatment and the pain and cost-overruns that result from low specificity.
The pilot will be implemented with a hub and spoke model – with lower level facilities located in 4 Kisumu sub-counties that will serve as spokes and act as feeders, and will be outfitted with appropriate medical technologies, as well as eHealth technologies to capture demand generated from outlying areas and direct these patients into the hub which will be outfitted with the more advanced technology. The proposed hub is Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (JOOTRH), a tier 3, secondary referral hospital. The hub-and-spoke model ensures the availability of immediate referral linkages and pathways from the lower level facilities/spokes.
Quality outcomes including the number of women screened, screening outcomes, and quality of referrals, etc., will be collected and reported as well. A baseline assessment will be performed prior to study implementation to establish a baseline to compare the data and outcomes collected at the end of the study; this data will be collected via an end line assessment.
Ariel Beery, CEO of MobileODT commented: “We are thrilled that the EVA System is once again being used to assess how technology can improve cervical cancer screening programs in Kenya, and look forward to providing the support necessary to ensure the pilot study success in collaboration with GE Healthcare and the Kisumu County Department of Health.”
About MobileODT
MobileODT is creating the next generation of medical visualization solutions. Our EVA (Enhanced Visual Assessment) System combines biomedical optics with the power and connectivity of mobile technology. EVA’s portable and affordable visual assessment tools can be used in a variety of practice settings to improve access to care. The EVA System features high-quality image and video capture capabilities, image filters and annotation tools, remote consultation abilities, simple EMR integration, and ongoing quality assurance and training tools.
For more information, please contact:
Patrick Wanyoko
Regional Manager for Africa, MobileODT
patrickwanyoko@mobileodt.com
