Patient Safety Technology Challenge Update: C-Blu Makes Cervical Cancer Screening Possible Across the Globe

1. What specific patient safety issue or personal experience inspired your innovation, and how did you identify the gap in the current healthcare system that your solution addresses?

I was studying biomedical engineering in college, and I met people involved with the World Health Organization's (WHO) initiative to eliminate cervical cancer. I started learning more about the challenges of eliminating the disease, including accessibility to accurate screening and treatment methods.

Although there are screening methods that are accessible in low-resource settings, they are not as accurate as pap-smears and biopsies. The most accessible form of screening is visual inspection during colposcopy, a procedure where a device called a colposcope is used to view the cervix. However, visual inspection only catches 80% of cancer cases.

I created a team with my classmates, and we set a goal to improve the sensitivity of colposcopy for diagnosing cervical cancer. My team has three biomedical engineers, Derek Lewis, Nathan Wallace and Ryleigh Smith, and a business student, Ethan Betts. Together we built a new colposcope that has blue lights which cause cancerous tissue to fluoresce, so it appears brighter and more obvious to examiners.

2. What were/are the major challenges you face(d) during development, and how did you overcome them?

A major challenge was being mindful of what settings the device may be used in and considering extreme resource limitations. In sub-Saharan Africa, the region of the world most burdened by cervical cancer, most screenings are done in pop-up clinics. This means many women may be screened in tents with no power or climate control. We had to change our design based on such factors. Our team learned a lot about electronic design and in some cases used custom materials. We went through several prototypes and testing before coming up with a design durable enough for even the most resource-poor screening environments.

4. How are you addressing potential barriers to access, especially in underserved communities? How are you addressing integration into current health systems?

The countries with the highest rates of cervical cancer deaths also have the lowest screening rates. Nineteen of the top 20 most burdened countries are in sub-Saharan Africa. Even in the US, rates of both cervical cancer incidence and mortality are rising in rural and resource-limited areas, including tribal lands and inner cities with limited access to health care.

One challenge is that while pap-smears and biopsies are very effective for diagnosing cervical cancer, these tests are not available to many women. Our device was developed specifically considering the testing that women in these areas have access to and increasing the accuracy of these procedures.

5. If you could give one piece of advice to an early innovator, what would it be?

One piece of advice for an early innovator is to use their community. There are many people who have helped our team learn the skills that we needed to create something that we never could have on our own.