Today@Dal

From Tuesday's Chronicle Herald:

Dalhousie University researchers are hoping a tiny camera — along with software enhancements developed in Halifax — will help save some of the world’s most vulnerable people.

The university was recently awarded $100,000 from the federal government through Grand Challenges Canada to fund a project aimed at improving health among pregnant women, new mothers, newborns, children and emergency room patients in developing countries.

The project uses a video microscope to record images of small blood vessels under the tongue. Those videos are then analyzed to determine blood flow, capillary density and other factors to help diagnose conditions such as pre-eclampsia, anemia, malnutrition and conditions associated with trauma.

Dr. Christian Lehmann, a professor in the university’s anesthesia department and the project’s lead investigator, said many doctors in developing countries don’t have access to the diagnostic equipment available in countries such as Canada.

“Here in Canada, we have all this available,” Lehmann said. “If the patient comes with a chronic or acute situation, we can just do a blood test or we do some imaging with ultrasound or other devices, then we will have a diagnosis very soon. But that’s not the case in developing countries, especially in rural areas. You don’t have access to blood work or to ultrasound.”

Read the rest of this article online.