The RAN Pitch Tuesdays have continued to be rich platforms where creative thinkers’ access support directed towards further developing their innovative ideas, prototypes or projects. It is during these sessions that innovators pitch about their proposed solutions to address particular community challenges and receive real-time feedback to guide further improvement of the solutions. The Innovators benefit from an opportunity to pitch to and received feedback from a team of multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral experts comprised of a team from within and outside RAN. “You too can benefit from this rare opportunity, schedule your appointment now at http://www.ranlab.org/pitch-tuesday’ added Ronald Kayiwa, RAN Eastern Africa Resilience Innovation Lab Innovations Officer. It is exciting to share about the 3 teams of innovators hosted during the Pitch Tuesday sessions. The three teams included a nurse from the United Kingdom, a local council employee in Mubende district of Uganda and a team of Makerere University College of Health Sciences Department of Biomedical Engineering students. Their innovations included;
- Neo-Slip – anti-embolism stocking aid that has been designed to prevent Deep Vein Thrombosis DVT without having to resort to medical treatment. The product is used as a compression stocking aid to make applying the stockings as easy as pulling on your socks in the morning. Neo –Slip was founded by Neomi Bennet a registered Nurse in the UK who seeks is working to provide both patient and nurse led solutions to improve health outcomes. She was visiting RAN and Mulago National Referral Hospital where she was also interested in working with the nurses in Ugandan hospitals to identify causes of Deep Vein Thrombosis.
- Mediquip team – Addressing Postpartum bleeding – This is a team of Bio-Medical Engineering students from Makerere University College of Health Sciences proposing a self-pressurized belt that can be wrapped around the lower diaphragm gently applying pressure on the blood supply to the lower part of the body thus reducing the amount of blood being lost due to bleeding.
- Micro – Hydro Electricity Generation Model – in his presentation, David Mpeirwe from Mubende district local council offices proposed a model where electricity can be generated at a small scale using static water that is always kept in domestic and commercial water tanks. In his model, water is let loose by a gravitational method and used to run a compressing chamber located below it using boat-like engine propellers, hence building pressure that is used to run a turbine, generating electricity. The electricity is stepped up using a motorized generator that is run by the turbine. Excess water in the turbine engine is pumped back into the main water tank. This model is proposed to work for hospitals and schools.
Watch out for more Innovations shared in the successive Pitch Tuesdays.
