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Team StethoCloud - Hon Weng Chong, Andrew Lin, Kim Ramchen and Masha Salehi of the University of Melbourne - chose to address the prevalence of pneumonia in the developing world. The team developed an inexpensive digital stethoscope what connects to a smartphone and digitises the patient's breathing sounds, which are matched against a medical database to deliver a diagnosis and treatment plan.
The digital stethoscope is said to be 4000% cheaper than available commercial products (presumably meaning it costs one fortieth as much).
"In some countries, parents are known to hold off taking their kids for medical care because they often think a cough is just a cold and the nearest clinic can be a day's walk away," said team leader Hon Weng Chong. "But what if any mother could diagnose pneumonia? What if a healthcare or community worker on every corner could have the power in their hands to help save a life?"
Team StethoCloud will represent Australia at the worldwide finals of the Imagine Cup, to be held later this year in Sydney.
The runner-up was a team from the University of Canberra, which developed an app to track the use-by dates of food items, suggests recipes using the expiring items, and encourages donations to nearby charities and food banks.
