Tanzanians do cervical screening with phone app

clinic
Health workers use smart phones and a head torch to take a picture of the cervix

Researchers in northern Tanzania have built an app that nurses and doctors can use to screen women for cervical cancer, which they say is the first of its kind in the world.

It requires health workers to take a photographs of the cervix with a smartphone and then send them via the app to a medical expert in a specialised clinic.

Phone app
The app is called Servical

Doctors at the clinic review the image and immediately send a diagnosis via the app back to the health worker, giving instructions about treatment.

Although mobile phone connectivity is a problem, it allows health workers to screen and save the images and send them later.

In Tanzania, more than 4,000 women die every year from cervical cancer, according to the World Health Organization.

Cervical cancer is preventable.

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