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Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Solar Powered Blood Pressure Measuring Device Promises To Improve Health Care


Solar Powered Blood Pressure Measuring Device.....
a solar powered blood pressure measuring device that can be functional even in the absence of proper power or fully trained medical personnel. The two main points are those — easy to use and operable almost anywhere. This device promises to be a blessing for health workers everywhere. The existing measures actually use no power at all but they do use mercury. So they are being phased out for environmental reasons. Also, they are relatively harder to master and read.

This solar powered blood pressure measuring device called Hem-Solar is electronic and it measures systolic BP with a 94% accuracy and even though it measures diastolic pressure with less accuracy — people conducting a study on it have noted that it can be improved. It has been tested with 716 participants in Uganda and Zambia and the results have been very encouraging. The training took about 15 minutes with each user. About 85% of the medical professionals rated the device good or very good and 97% recommended its use.

The device uses a solar panel generate the energy that it needs to run. But it can also run on battery when need be.

The next phase of the study involves a study of blood pressure measuring in pregnant women. Hypertension in pregnancy is one of the main reasons of high death rates amongst mothers.

Everyone is hoping that this device will be a major boost to healthcare providers who work in remote areas with underprivileged who do not have access to a proper facility. This may be because they are too poor or because they are located a place that is too remote or may be even both.