Editor’s note: The Vodafone Americas Foundation Wireless Innovation project, sponsored by the Global Philanthropy Forum and NetSquared, set out to find and fund the most innovative applications of wireless technology that addresses critical global issues. This post, an interview with the team that developed CellScope, is the second in a series of three posts featuring the winners.

Project: CellScope: Mobile Microscopy for Disease Diagnosis

Team: Dr. Daniel Fletcher, Dr. Erik Douglas, Dr. Wilbur Lam, Neil Switz, Robi Maamari, David Breslauer, Bioengineering Department, University of California at Berkeley

TP: At what point in time did you realize that you were on to something that had not been done before?

CS: The CellScope is a new combination of two things that have been done before, and that’s why we think it will work.  Optical microscopy is a well-accepted standard for medical diagnosis, but the equipment and the personnel are often unavailable in resource-poor areas.  We are trying to take advantage of the rapid growth in mobile phone coverage to bring that high standard of care to everyone.

TP: How can this technology be applied in ways that are beneficial to countries where basic tests are already available, such as the US and Canada? Or is the technology mostly beneficial in remote areas that lack funding for health care and access to basic methods of diagnosing diseases?

CS: The CellScope technology could be used for healthcare in rural areas of the US, where medical infrastructure is sometimes lacking or distant.  It could also be applied by individual users for at-home monitoring of chronic conditions, with automated transmission to the doctor’s office.

TP: What are the main differences between your innovation, CellScope, and the CelloPhone?

Our system uses traditional optical microscopy, and provides doctors with familiar diagnostic images.  The cellular connection enables offsite diagnosis and record keeping, but the data are produced with the standard techniques, which could ease acceptance by clinicians.

TP: What’s next for your team?

We are putting the system through clinical testing, comparing the results with the US standards, and planning for new field testing with developing world partners.