Homemade $800 Endoscope
Obviously, there are sterilization and reliability issues that arise from using commodity webcams and PCs as endoscopes, but this is a creative way of bringing the capabilities to a resource poor community.
Dr. Nguyen Phuoc Huy, a doctor working in the poor rural area around the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, has used some cheap parts, a PC, and some mad DIY skills to make a homemade endoscope — a device that normally costs upwards of $30,000.
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.
Tags: ruraldevelopment, medicine, vietnam“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.
