Dimagi, MobileOCT awarded funding to improve cervical cancer screening

Israeli biomedical optics company MobileOCT and Dimagi have been jointly awarded funding to help health care providers in low-income countries screen, detect, and track cervical cancer. The World Health Organization estimates that 275,000 women die from cervical cancer each year, 85% of whom are in the developing world. If detected in the first five years, cervical cancer can be easily and economically treated.

“We’re really excited about this partnership with MobileOCT,” said Dimagi CEO Jonathan Jackson. “Developing this tool will offer the much needed opportunity to tackle and treat cervical cancer in low-resource settings, while also creating an approach that can be leveraged for all healthcare service delivery.”

The Israel-US Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD) has approved $8.3 million in new funding for 11 projects between US and Israeli collaborations in healthcare disciplines, including Dimagi and Mobile OCT. MobileOCT has developed a portfolio of mobile optical cancer screening products and software services, including its low-cost Mobile Colposcope used to screen for cervical cancer in low-resource settings worldwide.

“There are few awards as prestigious for an Israeli company as BIRD, and we are privileged to join the ranks of world-class companies working with BIRD,” said MobileOCT CEO Ariel Beery.

“We are so very excited to work with Dimagi, the market leader in health-oriented information systems for low-resource settings. MobileOCT could not find a better partner, and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to work alongside Dimagi and learn from their years of experience in the field.”

Through this partnership, MobileOCT and Dimagi are bridging MobileOCT’s Mobile Colposcope and CommCare to develop the first fully cloud-integrated mobile medical device designed for cervical cancer screening in low-income countries. Once the products are integrated, caregivers will be able to easily capture patient data along with cervical imaging simply with a mobile phone. All data will be aggregated in the cloud to track and improve operations and the accuracy of diagnoses.

To learn more about BIRD and this award, check out the press release here.