On Saturday, May 16, The Impilo Project, a South African NGO that provides healthcare to disadvantaged communities, arranged a health check day at Marconi Beam Primary School in Slovo, an informal settlement in Cape Town, South Africa. This successful initiative provided a first look at the cutting-edge future of tuberculosis (TB) detection.
Through collaboration with various partners, patients receive medical checkups, HIV testing, dental care, women's health screenings, and more. But one screening stood out from the rest: an AI-powered TB screening provided in partnership with AI Diagnostics – a South African medtech company that was one of two primary partners of the event.
TB testing made accessible
Community health days are not uncommon in South Africa, where a large percentage of the population has limited access to health care. But TB screening is not part of the services traditionally offered, despite the fact that around 50,000 South Africans die from TB each year. The reason was logical. It was not possible to take the X-ray machine to the community centre. Now, this has changed.
The palm-sized, AI-powered stethoscope developed by AI Diagnostics has made it possible to deliver TB screening to those who need it most. Described by Braden van Breda, CEO of AI Diagnostics, as “Shazam for TB”, the device combines the functionality of a stethoscope with AI pattern-recognition. Trained on thousands of lung sounds, it is able to capture the distinctive sound produced by TB in the lungs with an accuracy equal to that of a radiologist interpreting an X-ray, even in the early stages.
Out of the lab and into the field
It was gratifying for Van Breda to see the company's technology being used in the type of setting it was created for. “Having a screening day like this reflects our mission. It was fantastic to see our device serving at-risk communities and working in extremely low-resource environments,” says Van Breda.
The AI-powered stethoscope was designed to be portable, easy and quick to use. All of these features can be seen in action on the day community health workers are using the devices.
“We tested 105 people in just a few hours,” says Van Breda. “Teaming up with Impilo was powerful – they set the stage for much more than just TB screening, creating an incredibly comprehensive healthcare service for community patients. It also gave us the opportunity to show how our solution could fit seamlessly into and add value to these days like screening and health days.”
It was also affirming to see the device being used by the frontline medical workers it was intended for. “Our technology is designed to meet people where they are seeking care, which could be in primary health facilities or linked to HIV programs or even at home health care visits,” says van Breda. “To achieve this, we have designed for a variety of operators. Today, we've seen the product working in the hands of community health workers, nurses, medical students and doctors, all performing screenings alongside each other.”
Health care workers testing for TB that day expressed excitement about finally having access to a tool that makes early detection both possible and accessible.
Dr Dale Smith, a Cape Town doctor and CEO of the Impilo Project, works in disadvantaged communities in some of the most remote areas of Africa. Having witnessed first-hand the devastating impact of TB as a direct result of underdiagnosis, Dr. Smith is particularly excited about this tool. “The amazing thing about the device is that it's a tool that we can put into the hands of community health workers and nurses, frontline workers, who can now catch TB before anything happens. Before, you had to wait until you went to the hospital or to the doctor to find out if you had TB. But now we have a tool where we can detect it much earlier in communities.”
Health champion, Nomfundo Philisane, says: “I like it because our communities are suffering from TB and we are trying to curb TB. And I'm happy because now we are able to detect it at an early stage rather than later. And then we can help get the patient to a clinic or hospital and get treatment.”
In a country where TB has such a devastating impact, which is made worse by late detection, the success of the AI Diagnostics Stethoscope at the Impilo Project Health Day in Slovo provides a glimpse of a future where early detection at the community level is accessible and commonplace – and where local health care innovations already create everyday heroes working on the ground.
Thinking about the impact of the stethoscope in communities across Africa, Dr. Smith concluded: “Honestly, this thing is going to save millions of lives.”