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Ugandan scientist develops cancer detection machine
Dr William Wasswa displays the digital microscope for cervical cancer
diagnosis. PHOTO/COURTESY
What you need to know:
- Dr William Wasswa, 34, is a senior lecturer in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Engineering of Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST).
- He has a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from MUST and a master’s in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from MUST.
A scientist from Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Dr William Wasswa, has manufactured an automated digital microscope for the detection of cervical cancer to tame rising deaths.
In an interview with this publication last month, Dr Wasswa said the low-cost machine has a series of hardware and software innovations that make cancer diagnosis and patient record management faster and more efficient.
The machine, according to a report published in the scientific journal BioMedical Engineering Online, has an accuracy of around 97 percent in detecting cervical cancer from body samples.
Dr Wasswa said cancer samples in the country are currently analysed manually, and this, he said, is time-consuming, error-prone and has to be done by a trained cytopathologist (an expert in analysing body cells to diagnose disease).
“This new technology can take five minutes for you to get the test results. You load the pap smear (tissue sample from the body) for cervical cancer test under the microscope and the computer does the analysis and gives you the results,” he said.
The head of research at Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI), Dr Nixon Niyonzima, told this publication that he knows about the innovation but has not yet used it to see how well it works.
The World Health Organisation estimates that in 2014 approximately 3,915 Ugandan women were diagnosed with cervical cancer and that 2,160, representing 55 percent, died from the disease.
The main components of the microscope include the camera for digitising the image of the sample, lead array for illumination [lighting], motors for driving the stage [where the sample is put] and electronics.
“The software for analysing the sample is the core part which takes most of the work,” Dr Wasswa said.
He said he spent five years developing the technology.
“It was part of my PhD project and I started a company out of it,” he said, adding, “The new tech also has software which keeps track of all patient’s details, sending them reminders. I have six of them [the microscopes] at the moment. But I am still improving the accuracy. The sensitivity is at 94 percent and specificity is at 96 percent.”
Sensitivity is the ability to designate an individual with the disease as positive while specificity is its ability to designate an individual who does not have a disease as negative.
The new tech has artificial intelligence technology so the more tests it performs the more it trains itself to become more accurate.
“We are making the machine locally. All these things [parts] are 3d printed, and the electronics are assembled locally, so we just get a few motors and a camera. You do most of the work on the software,” Dr Wasswa said.
He added that they are still in the first phase of the clinical trial.
“The trial is being sponsored by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the UK Royal Academy of Engineering. We got some funds from USAID that was the first batch for piloting the platform, the software part,” he said.
He added: “But then we are working with the Royal Academy to improve the microscope. We have Shs32m for the trial [so far]. I have tried to approach the government but I have received good feedback.”
The new tech, once it has passed all three phases of clinical trial and is approved by the National Drug Authority (NDA), could be more affordable for hospitals across the country to start screening and diagnosing cancer in their facilities.
“My machine costs around $300 (Shs1.1m) to $500 (Shs1.8m). The current (imported) microscope they use is about $21,000 (Shs78.1m). The new machine will be five to seven times cheaper than the current microscopes,” Dr Wasswa said.
The entire process of cancer diagnosis in Uganda takes somewhere between four days to two weeks.
