Long-running USAID-funded program advances more than 30 health technologies for low-resource settings

In the developing world, the difference between sickness and health for millions of babies and mothers can be as simple as a sterile needle and syringe. A reliable refrigerator for storing vaccines. A test for sexually transmitted infections.

But needles are not easily sterilized; refrigerators are impractical, expensive, or difficult for rural health workers to maintain; and laboratories where urine and blood are analyzed for infectious disease often exist only in major cities.

For the past 20 years, PATH has been developing technologies that help health workers in developing countries overcome obstacles to good health and health care—through a program called HealthTech that is funded by the US Agency for International Development and others.

Our portfolio of technologies includes simple products that can be manufactured by small, local businesses as well as highly sophisticated technologies produced with state-of-the-art industrial processes and materials. Whatever their makeup, these tools are all tailored to low-resource settings. For example:

• Our clean-delivery kit is barely larger than a deck of cards but contains items a woman needs to safely give birth at home: a string for tying the cord, a plastic sheet for a delivery surface, and other inexpensive items. Another technology for maternal and child health is a portable scale to screen newborns for low birthweight status.
• The Uniject device is a prefilled, autodisable syringe. It allows health workers with minimal training to give vaccines in remote areas, prevents vaccine wastage, and also prevents needle reuse, thereby reducing infection transmission. Other technologies for immunization include an indicator of vaccine’s exposure to heat, needle-free injectors, and technologies for dealing with medical waste.
• We are designing new, lower-cost versions of the diaphragm and the woman’s condom to help women protect themselves against HIV and AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases, and unintended pregnancy.
• In the area of nutrition, our Ultra Rice® technology adds nutrients to rice. We have also developed a simple test for detecting vitamin A deficiency in populations.
• To improve diagnosis of major diseases, we have developed or are working on easy-to-use, low-cost test kits for diarrheal diseases, malaria, sexually transmitted infections, and cervical cancer. The tests yield results quickly, so that individuals can receive follow-up, if necessary, during the same clinic visit. A low-cost method of monitoring HIV disease status is also on the way.

In all, more than 30 health technologies are currently in our development pipeline. Ten have already been commercialized and distributed to public health programs around the world. They are having significant, positive impacts on the health of individuals around the world.

"Uniject" is a trademark of BD. "Ultra Rice" is a registered trademark in the United States of Bon Dente International, Inc.