歌词
From VOA Learning English,
this is the Technology Report.
Three university students in Uganda
have created a smartphone application
that may help improve health care
for pregnant women in rural areas.
Joshua Okello and two other students
at Makerere University in Kampal
created the app in 2012.
They call it WinSenga -
"senga" is the local word
uses to describe a female family member
who helps a woman during pregnancy.
The "Win" in the name
comes from the Microsoft product Windows.
Last year, the computer software company
gave Mr Okello and his partners $50,000
to continue development on the WinSenga app.
A small microphone is placed inside a plastic horn.
Mr Okello says midwives in the area
have used similar devices for centuries
to help women during childbirth.
"It's a long cone-shaped device
with a hole through it
and a flat top.
The midwife places it on the belly
and listens in.
Every midwife in this country has seen it,
and that is what they are trained with," said Okello.
The smartphone app records and examines
the sound of the unborn baby's heartbeat.
Mr Okello says, if the app suspects a problem,
then it informs the midwife of different actions she might take.
"Say you have a baby and
we detect that the heartbeat is
less than 120 beats per minute.
That is a problem. So immediately,
we pop up something that says ‘Please,
we suggest that you could do A, B, C, D,'" explained Okello.
Mr Okello says having a mobile device with this app
could make it easier for health care workers
to reach women in villages far away from cities.
He says it will also be less costly
than the machines that are now being used.
"We are getting a solution that's cheaper,
which means that more clinics are going to get it.
If we could get Huawei
or I don't know who to give us phones for free,
we are looking at a solution that's less than $100," said Okello.
Juliet Birungi is an obstetrician -
a doctor who cares for pregnant women.
She has tried WinSenga.
She says hospitals could use the app
to help medical workers follow the health of the baby,
even when they are not there.
"You have so many mothers in labor,
and we do not have enough staff.
You find that while the mother is
laboring here, the other one is delivering,
the other one is bleeding.
So when you come,
you are able to look at the recording," said Birungi.
Doctor Birungi says
having these up to date records of the baby's health condition,
could make the difference between life and death.
But she says the app is not a substitute
for a trained medical worker.
Mr Okello says the app could also be helpful
in other developing countries
with similar problems to Uganda.
And he says, with further changes to the app,
it could even be used at home
by pregnant women in developed countries.
Work on WinSenga continues.
Mr Okello and his team are busy preparing
for a major series of clinical testing this month.
And that's the VOA Learning English Technology Report.
I'm June Simms.