Impact Hub Harare

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Dr.CADx: The start-up that sees through you

 

Dr.CADx: The start-up that sees through you

At Impact Hub Harare’s we are passionate about positive social impact and innovation. We take ideas and support them to become global solutions. We bring international communities and opportunities to Zimbabwe, and take Zimbabwe’s brilliance to the international scene. It is a symbiotic ecosystem of do-gooders.

 

One of the international platforms Impact Hub Harare brought last year was the Seedstars World competition. This was the first time Seedstars came to Zimbabwe, and it has certainlypaid off.  Through this event, we met innovators from around the country including Dr. Cadx, the winners of the competition. We thus began incubating this cutting edge medical innovation that has the potential to change the realm of radiology.

 

In many regions of the developing world there is a shortage of medical specialists. While cardiologists and neurologists are usually the least common, radiologists are included. In Zimbabwe there are currently less than 20 radiologists serving the entire Zimbabwean population of over 13 million people. As a result of this severe shortfall in the provision of radiological services the Dr. Cadx team decided to use their brilliant minds to solve the problem.

 

Gift Gana and Tatenda Madzorera have developed an innovative solution to address this scarcity. The computer aided diagnostic solution, aptly named Dr. CADx, helps non-radiologists and radiologists to examine medical images. The tool will allow medical doctors to accurately diagnose a variety of diseases including lung cancer and tuberculosis. For communities with little to no access to a medical specialist Dr. CADx will prove to be a lifesaving tool.

 

The founders, Gift Gana and Tatenda Madzorera, were able to create and develop software so effective that with each examination of a medical image the tool confirms a diagnosis with 99% accuracy. In diagnosing diseases which the computer system has been programmed to recognise Dr. CADx is arguably more accurate than a radiologist.

 

So if Dr. CADx is so accurate then why train anyone to be a radiologist?

 

According to Gift Gana the role of a radiologist is still essential given that the computer system is limited in the types of ailments it can recognize. Unless Dr. CADx is manually taught to identify all existing diseases that can be diagnosed via CT Scan, MRI, or X-ray then the system remains limited. In most cases radiologists are required to provide a full report of what they have examined in a particular image. Consequently, Dr. CADx can be used by radiologist as a tool in confirming their initial diagnoses and ensuring the highest rate of accuracy.

 

Impact Hub Harare is actively providing global opportunities to local innovators like Dr. CADx. Having participated and won the 2016 Seedstars competition the Dr. CADx team has gained a great deal of momentum and continues to excel. Their winnings at the competition included a free trip to Kigali, Rwanda where they presented their creation to an audience full of African investors and wowed the crowd once again.

 

In April, they will travel to Zurich with the Impact Hub Harare ambassador  where they stand a chance to win half a million dollars in equity funding. Whether they win or not, the exposure to international investors, and other innovators changing the world will propel them to improve.

 

The Dr. Cadx team has aspirations of introducing this tool in other African countries such as Malawi and Tanzania. Impact Hub Harare continues to mentor and incubate the Dr. CADx team; it is not enough to simply find innovation, it must be buttressed by technical skill, action and tenacity–we want to see this product to market. Jointly, we are engaging major players in the private health sector to test out the system in Zimbabwe. Before long, doctors in the public health sector should also be able to enjoy the benefit of this incredible innovation.

 

 

 

 

 

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