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SimPrints

Help us prototype SimPrints - a mobile biometric scanner that can save lives

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SimPrints

SimPrints

SimPrints

SimPrints

SimPrints

Help us prototype SimPrints - a mobile biometric scanner that can save lives

Help us prototype SimPrints - a mobile biometric scanner that can save lives

Help us prototype SimPrints - a mobile biometric scanner that can save lives

Help us prototype SimPrints - a mobile biometric scanner that can save lives

Toby Norman
Toby Norman
Toby Norman
Toby Norman
1 Campaign |
Cambridge, United Kingdom
$10,360 USD $10,360 USD 95 backers
54% of $18,950 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal

Welcome to SimPrints

SimPrints is a rugged, low-cost biometric scanner that can sync wirelessly with mobile phones. Our goal is to allow health workers to access patient medical records anytime, anywhere; improving the delivery of healthcare and saving lives even in some of the toughest environments on the planet.SimPrints Scanner

SimPrints Scanner

The Need

In the past 10 years there has been a wave of clever mobile-health applications developed by NGOs around the world to help them provide medical care. These tools do everything from running diagnostic decision trees to monitoring drug stock outs.

However patient identification and authentication remains a key bottleneck in expanding the reach of mobile healthcare. Matching patients digitally to health records is a big challenge when people often don’t have national health numbers or fixed addresses, and lack formal IDs such as driver’s licenses. Our field experience has found that even typical identifiers used in developed world contexts such as names or dates of birth are inadequate in developing countries where multiple people may share the same name in a village or do not know their birthday.  As a consequence many NGOs and governments often have to make do with inadequate or missing medical records, seriously limiting their ability to deliver high quality health care.

Community Health Worker, Bangladesh

Our Solution

SimPrints overcomes this challenge by linking patients to health records through a single unique identifier, their fingerprint. A person’s fingerprint is a biometric ID that’s completely unique to them and—unlike typical paper records—can’t be faked or lost. In the past decade fingerprinting accuracy has increased greatly and costs are coming down, but very few people are looking at applications for the developing world. SimPrints is prototyping a scanner that syncs with existing m-Health applications to empower them with biometric tools.

SimPrints Process Flow

A community health worker can download the SimPrints app on their phone and pair it with their device via Bluetooth. When a worker swipes a patient’s fingerprint it’s sent to the SimPrints application, which translates it into a unique numeric ID. This ID can enrol new patients, or seamlessly match existing patients to their health records, which will give their medical status and suggest next steps in their care. These records can be stored locally on the phone, or in cloud databases increasingly being used by medical nonprofits and governments all around the world.

What’s especially powerful about biometrics is the incredible range of things you can do once you have a scanner built for these contexts. For example, fingerprint scans can be matched with timestamps and GPS coordinates to confirm health workers are visiting patients on time, allowing managers to track workforces or monitor health patterns. Fingerprints can also be used to reduce fraud and corruption in the distribution of aid, by requiring providers to produce a unique fingerprint for every recipient helped. Biometrics also have potential applications in securing microfinance loans, or authenticating mobile banking transfers.

Campaign Goals

iHub, Nairobi

The goal of this campaign is to raise funds to hire four Kenyan engineers to join our team. They’ll be working directly with our lead mechanical engineer Reg Orton and software programmer Tristram Norman to do the heavy lifting, constructing circuit boards and testing software. What’s unique about SimPrints is that we’re not just a bunch of researchers and engineers building technology for the developing world in a Western lab. All of our protoyping is being done full-time in Kenya, close to the actual problems we’re trying to solve. This is part of a broader movement led by organizations like Kenya’s iHub to build more ICT solutions for the developing world in the developing world. We’re really passionate about this type of work and are proud to be part of it.

Next Steps

We’ve put together a team of researchers, engineers, programmers, and industrial design specialists to make this happen. We’ve already constructed our first proof-of-concept model and the software for the initial application. Where we want to go next is to build a full prototype to field test this fall. We’re very lucky to have an implementation partner in MedicMobile, one of the world’s leading mobile health NGOs. However, we can’t finish building this technology alone. That’s where you come in. If you believe in what we’re doing and think you can help, then please donate on the right-hand side or get in touch!

Who's talking about us?

Who's talking about us?

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Business/Business-News/Innovative-health-care-ideas-from-brainstorm-27032012.htm

http://www.cabume.co.uk/the-cluster/idea-transform-picks-four-tech-ideas-with-potential-to-change-the-world.html

http://www.gatescambridge.org/news/detail.asp?ItemID=13443

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Choose your Perk

Awesome Thank You

Currency Conversion $13 USD
£10 GBP
You’re awesome and you care. We’ll send you a personal thank you on Twitter and Facebook for your support.
15 claimed

Prototyping Expert

Currency Conversion $32 USD
£25 GBP
Way to help us prototype! On top of a personal thank you we’ll be sending you a pair of supercool SimPrints sunglasses for all your engineering adventures (Ray Ban style). We hear they make you smarter.
12 claimed

Adopt-a-scanner

Currency Conversion $44 USD
£35 GBP
For £35 we can build a complete scanner from scratch, so for this contribution you’ll adopt a scanner in Kenya and we’ll help you follow its adventures through pictures and monthly newsletter updates. Watch it grow up from an adorable little circuit board into a full-grown scanning machine!
5 claimed

mHealth Engineer

Currency Conversion $63 USD
£50 GBP
Way to contribute to the future of mHealth! On top of adopting a scanner we’ll send you our legendary SimPrints t-shirt. Guaranteed to pick up techy guys/gals anywhere.
8 claimed

SimPrints Rockstar

Currency Conversion $126 USD
£100 GBP
Wow, you’re a rockstar. On top of the thank yous + scanner + gear, we’ll invite you to a special online discussion with the founders. Plus if you’re ever in town our team is taking you out for drinks at the coolest pubs in Cambridge. First rounds on us.
5 claimed

Prototyping Legend

Currency Conversion $316 USD
£250 GBP
This is a serious investment, so for £250 we’re going to engrave one of our first prototypes with your name! E.g. “The Daniel Stori v2.3” or a name of your choosing. Once it’s retired the hardware is yours to keep.
3 claimed

Hall of Fame

Currency Conversion $632 USD
£500 GBP
Simply incredible. Donate £500 and we’re forever immortalizing you as an honorary founder of SimPrints, listed on our website’s hall of fame. In addition we'll set you up for a tweet chat with some of the leaders in the m-Health field, like MedicMobile co-founder Isaac Holeman. Plus gear, hardware, and a huge thank you.
3 claimed

Join the Fight

Currency Conversion $6,317 USD
£5,000 GBP
Want to join us on the front lines of the fight for better global health? We’re not playing anymore. Help us get SimPrints off the ground and join our team in the field in Kenya for a week (accommodation incl.) testing scanners and shaping the future of the organization. Or support from afar with all of the glory, hardware, and more personalized thank you videos from the field you could ever want. Max 3 spots.
0 out of 3 of claimed

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