Monday, August 22, 2005

BBC NEWS | Technology | Vietnam medic makes DIY endoscope

BBC NEWS | Technology | Vietnam medic makes DIY endoscope: "A hospital doctor in the poor rural area around the Mekong Delta in Vietnam has used his PC and some cheap parts to create a homemade endoscope.

In Vietnam, there is a shortage of endoscopes, with normally only one in each province.

Endoscopy is a minimally invasive diagnostic procedure used to evaluate the interior surfaces of an organ by inserting a small scope in the body. Through the scope, doctors are able to see lesions.

Dr Nguyen Phuoc Huy said his hospital could never afford to buy one as the endoscope costs around $30,000.

Instead he spent two years developing a DIY endoscope to peer inside the bodies of patients without the need for surgery.

Low cost system

The scope captures images from the body of a patient, which are then passed through a webcam to an analysis machine.


Dr Huy spent two years building the system
'The adaptor costs almost nothing because it is simply a system of lens linked to a webcam costing just about $30.

'In total I had to buy only the scope, which is about $800,' Dr Huy told the BBC World Service programme Go Digital."...

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