Smart Elimination of Neglected Diseases through Wireless Technology

The SEND Project:
Smart Elimination of Neglected Diseases through Wireless Technology

Neglected tropical diseases have been the focus of renewed efforts to develop drug treatments. Unfortunately, we have not seen a concurrent rise in efforts to reduce and eliminate these diseases through sanitation and other public health interventions. Schistosomiasis, for example, is a neglected tropical disease that affects millions of people worldwide. Although schistosomiasis is treatable through medication, it could be eliminated through coordinated public health efforts.

The SEND (Smart Elimination of Neglected Diseases) project seeks to address public health aspect of Neglected Tropical Disease elimination via an innovative disease elimination platform. The platform integrates a low-cost micro-fluidic diagnostic device and a wireless social and environmental data collection system. Together, the wireless data platform and diagnostic device will enable effective public health response to isolate a disease and decrease transmission. The current focus is on deploying the platform in Sichuan, China for schistosomiasis elimination. The technology and expertise developed in Sichuan could help researchers and practitioners expand the program to more areas and other Neglected Tropical Diseases.

In Sichuan, the platform will be used to conduct integrated and rapid assessments of infection, hygiene, and sanitation. The wireless system will be immediately useful in field investigations of suspected cases of schistosomiasis re-emergence, where infections would be confirmed via advanced diagnostics and the underlying causes of transmission could be systematically surveyed while in the field to inform next steps for controlling disease spread. The field investigator will be able to see in real-time the results of incoming data from potentially similar investigations occurring nearby.

The SEND project arises from a collaboration between two different UC Berkeley schools. The BioEngineering and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science departments in the College of Engineering are developing the micro-fluidic and wireless integration parts of the program, while the School of Public Health is developing the epidemiology and disease surveillance components of the SEND project.

Principal Investigator: Professor Amy Herr, Bioengineering; Edmund Seto, Public Health, Ruzena Bajcsy, EECS
Field Location: Sichuan China