In commemoration of Pink October, a month designated globally to raise awareness on breast cancer by putting in efforts to educate those concerned about the disease, including early identification and signs and symptoms associated with breast cancer, YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE, in this report, features a woman, Kemisola Bolarinwa, chief executive officer of Nextwear Technologies, for her novel effort in designing and developing technology worn near the body to treat health-related problems and building on her robotics and system engineering experiences to invent a smart bra that can detect early-stage breast cancer before symptoms develop.
Kemisola Bolarinwa, the founder and chief executive officer of Nextwear Technologies, the first wearable technology startup in Nigeria, is an entrepreneur with a difference. She is not only a robotics scientist but an innovator whose efforts have helped to bring breakthrough in the medical field. She has used her science background to invent many devices; a GPS necklace that helps track the wearer’s location – launched in 2020 when there were “overwhelming cases of kidnapping across Nigeria” and a watch that monitors body temperature, blood pressure, blood sugar and oxygen, heart and breathing rate.
And now, building on her robotics and system engineering experiences, Kemisola has invented a smart bra that can detect early-stage breast cancer before symptoms develop based on inspiration to create a smart bra after her aunt’s death due to the late-stage detection of breast cancer. Her invention has been recognised by BBC Africa and is unique in its wide accessibility to those in rural or low-income communities who cannot access health facilities for conventional tests.
Bolarinwa, who is also president of Women in ICT, a not-for-profit organisation launched her company in 2019, the year her aunt died of breast cancer, which “triggered palpable fear” in her and inspired the smart bra. Her prototype uses ultrasound to detect possible tumours in 30 minutes and it is expected to undergo a large-scale trial in Nigeria; following development of similar technology in Switzerland and Mexico.
Women can wear the device at home and get the results through an app on their phone. The device can transmit the results to a doctor if follow-up treatment is required.
Speaking on her effort, Kemisola said that “the aim is to reduce the number of women dying from breast cancer by 80 percent, in line with the 2030 sustainable development agenda, using our wearable device. When I ventured into wearable technology in 2019, the first thing I had in mind was to develop a device that could detect breast cancer in its early stage. I strongly believe that this device would be a revolutionary approach to the prevention of breast cancer globally, not only in Nigeria, because of the technology my team and I are bringing in.”
The project has received funding from the Nigerian government and Standard Chartered bank and she has expressed the intention to see the product on sale and also made available for free to women who cannot afford to buy one.
To detect lumps in the breast, the smart bra repurposes ultrasound technology into a small form factor. Shrinking down an ultrasound machine to a portable size where it becomes wearable. And according to Bolarinwa, this was possible with nanotechnology; a branch of science, technology, and engineering that deals with the manufacturing of tech in small sizes.
The smart bra uses an ultrasound system called the Doppler that bounces high-frequency sound waves off the body to detect blood clots, heart defects, and blocked arteries. This works differently from ultrasound machines that use sound waves to generate images of the scanned area.
The Doppler ultrasound was re-engineered into small sensors distributed within the cups of the bra to sense lumps. Apart from that, the smart bra also uses the Internet of things (IoT) to communicate results to a smartphone or laptop. It is powered by a rechargeable lithium-polymer battery (LiPo).
While researching, Bolarinwa found that most women often forgot or didn’t know to check their breasts for lumps; the Smart bra does this for them seamlessly. The device only needs to be worn for up to 30 minutes to get the readings required and its IoT and Application Programming Interface (API) components translate readings into understandable information via a mobile app.
After years of research and developing a prototype, there’s still a lot of work to be done on the smart bra before it can be commercialised.
While Nextwear Technologies hasn’t launched a product into the market yet, it has not had trouble getting funding. Kemisola said the prototype launch made many people reach out to her. Some even proffered solutions on how the sensors can read higher and more accurate frequencies, while others offered investment opportunities and she had gotten over $120,000 in funding.
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