A mobile-based telepathology system for a low resource setting in Ethiopia

In most developing countries like Ethiopia, blood count of a microscopic image is done manually which is tedious, time consuming and error-prone. Recent advances in technology have introduced the use image processing software especially mobile technology. This research designed a low-cost smart phone microscope adapter, and developed a decision support system for automatic blood cell count and malaria. The image acquisition and processing applying the adapter and the software was tested in two clinics. The result, compared to the manual way of diagnosing microscopic images, is simple for diagnostic process and provides better decision support for malaria and blood cell counting, as well as speed up the diagnosis process. For blood cell counting and malaria detection, it takes about 30 s to 1 min using this system, but using a manual system it takes around 10–20 min. The preliminary result indicates that the developed system is cost-effective for higher and medium clinics in rural and urban clinic setup. This reduces the initial, running and maintenance cost of the laboratory equipment and also improves the quality of services. Keywords: Blood cell counting, Ethiopia malaria, Smartphone, Technology, Telepatholog