Hillspring diagnostics

it has been an herculean task for doctors over the years to detect Ectopic pregnancy, which is a common complication during the first trimester of pregnancy, 80% of cases presents as ruptured Ectopic in developing countries. 

Our team has developed a rapid diagnostic kit that can detect Ectopic pregnancy within 5-10 minutes, it can also differentiate between a Normal pregnancy and an Ectopic pregnancy. 

Ectopic pregnancies are pregnancies that implant outside of the uterus. They're often called tubal pregnancies because they almost always occur in the Fallopian tubes. In rare cases, they may also implant in the abdomen.

about 1 in every 50 pregnancies in the U.S. is an ectopic pregnancy (tubal pregnancy.)  Each patients risk, however, may actually be lower or higher than the average ( depending on the presence or absence of various risk factors).

Studies show that between 6 to 16% of pregnant women who go to an emergency department in the first trimester for bleeding, pain or both have an ectopic pregnancy.

Ectopic pregnancies can be dangerous to the mother. Bleeding from ectopic pregnancy causes 10% of all pregnancy-related deaths, and it's the leading cause of first-trimester maternal death.

Women have a 15% chance of another ectopic pregnancy after the first one. 

It has been a difficult task over the years for physicians and gynaecologist to detect this condition early in pregnancy, as a result most women with this condition are detected when they have ruptured their Fallopian tube. 

At Hillspring diagnostics we have put together a new pregnancy test kit, that can help detect ectopic pregnancy early enough in pregnancy.

Unlike the former pregnancy kit which diagnose pregnancy through the presence of beta-Hcg, our kit incorporates a novel protein and beta-hcg for the detection of ectopic pregnancy. 

This kit can also differentiate a normal pregnancy from an ectopic pregnancy I.e; it can be used to detect a normal pregnancy and also an ectopic pregnancy 

When ectopic pregnancy is detected early it can help to facilitate medical treatment which will reduce the amount of tubal rupture and infertility that occurs as a result of this condition

Detecting this condition early will prevent mortality and also increase the  chances of women having a normal delivery in subsequent pregnancies. 

Note that in developing countries  ( Nigeria to be precise ) 80% of women with ectopic pregnancy presents with ruptured ectopic ( they only get to find out when the uterus has ruptured).

Our solution will serve to help prevent rupturing of fallopian tubes in women of reproductive age groups.

 It will help prevent/reduce the rate of mortality  and morbidity that occurs from this condition.

Our solution will help to reduce the rate of infertility that occurs as a result of this condition in women

This solution will also help gyneacologist and physicians  to make informed decision on time. 

Our team is working with a professor of gynaecology in a university teaching hospital in Nigeria as we develop this kit. 

 A lot of research work has been done on samples gotten from women of reproductive age group, that proves the validity of the test kit. 

I believe this challenge helps to seek health innovations that improves mother and child health. 

Ectopic pregnancy is the number one cause of death in pregnant women "during the first trimester". 

Our solution can help prevent/reduce the morbidity and mortality related to this condition. Therefore contributing to the overall goal of improving mother and child health. 

The various methods of diagnosing ectopic pregnancy has been stressful and ineffective up until now;

One method involves taking quantitative measurement of hcg values over a period of days and checking it's minimum percentage increase over this period of time. The down side to this is that the ectopic can rupture in the process of taking this readings as the readings usually takes multiple days.

Another method is to check for it's absence in the uterus using an ultrasound, in the presence of hcg, but the down side to this is that normal fetus are not seen on  ultrasound until 5-6wks ,so this made it impossible to detect Ectopic pregnancy early enough using this method, and the ectopic might rupture the tube by 5-6wks.

Another method being used is laparoscopy ( a Mini surgery), the down side to this is it's price, it's expensive and painful. Most people in developing countries can't afford this. 

Our solution is none invasive, it's affordable, and can detect Ectopic pregnancy as early as the 10th day after fertilization.

our solution depends on lateral flow technology, a manufacturing technology currently used by the urine pregnancy test kit on market worldwide. 

Our solution is adding a novel antibody to this test kit in order to perform this function. 

The lateral flow technology is a solid form of enzyme linked immunoassay used in developing rapid diagnostic kits for disease detection, pregnancy detection, toxicology, and isolating proteins/antigens from various samples. 

our solution depends on lateral flow technology, a manufacturing technology currently used by the urine pregnancy test kit on market worldwide. 

Our solution is adding a novel antibody to this test kit in order to perform this function. 

Giving birth to children is a thing of joy, it also gives status to women( mostly in developing countries ), so infertility can be a painful ordeal for a woman in the society. 

Ectopic pregnancy is one of the causes of infertility, we believe detecting it early will help in treating it well , which can help reduce the rate of infertility and mortality that occur as a result of this condition. 

we are currently developing the products. But we are looking forward to serve an estimated 50 million people in Nigeria in our first year. 

In five years time we are estimating to serve more than 400 million people world wide. 

financial challenges has been the main hindrance, as more funds will be needed in developing the products. 

Legal challenges in that we want to patent this product, but getting a patent  lawyer who is ready to work within a reasonable price range has been difficult 

Marketing our products will also be challenging, been a new product in the market. 

we will seek funding through grants, donation and government aids to small businesses. 

We will go in through our networks to get connected to a reputable patent lawyer who's service isn't too expensive .

We are planning on employing a marketer who is well vassed and experienced in the terrain

currently we have seven people working on this solution. 

Three full time members 

Four people working on part time basis. 

Our product helps determine if a pregnancy is normally situated or not during early period of pregnancy. 

This is the first of its kind world wide. 

This will bring a solution to the long age quest for early detection of this condition. 

Our raw materials are gotten from our partner kinbio Tech in china at a relatively low cost which enables us to sell at an affordable Price. 

Our products end users are women in their reproductive age. Our direct customers are hospitals, pharmacies, laboratories, patent medicine stores and rapid kit dealers. 

We market our products through advertisement on  various online platforms ( social media etc).

We also market our products through pages on medical journals and during medical association meetings.

We also employ the services of advertising agencies. 

We operate a local store where products can be moved to customers. 

We also sell the products through various e-commerce website. 

Our mode of revenue generation will be through direct sales of products to customers. 

We also offer training  services for companies and organisations interested in making rapid kits. 

We also help produce rapid kit for research purposes. 

We are applying to solve to secure financial aid through grants from solve and any of its partners to help complete this project.

We will like to get help from solve and it's networks in terms of marketing and legal processes. 

we will like to partner with relevant  MIT faculties for subsequent research. 

We will like to partner with the different initiative  and solve network for  business mentoring .

we believe our solution is targeted for the betterment of women's health world wide, this will also improve the quality of life of women and girls globally,  I believe this is in tandem with the course this initiative is promoting. 

our solution is targeted towards this specific goal, and our operational base is currently in Nigeria. 

Our solution will make it easier for health care workers to easily detect and be able to make prompt and informed decision to take care of patients with Ectopic pregnancy. 

We believe our solution will help reduce the rate of maternal mortality in Africa and other developing countries. 

our plan at Hillspring diagnostics is to integrate in the future the detection of most diseases common in Africa, Artificial intelligence has a role to play in this, as we are planning to become the number one point of call for disease detection both in Africa and world wide.