What is the name of your organization?
StainSmart Innovations Co Ltd
What is the name of your solution?
StainSmart Innovations
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
accuracy in every slide
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Mbarara, Uganda
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
Uganda
What type of organization is your solution team?
Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
—
What specific problem are you solving?
In low-resource healthcare settings, timely and accurate disease diagnosis is hindered by the lack of affordable and efficient histopathology equipment. Manual slide staining, a critical step in pathology, is labor-intensive, inconsistent, and prone to errors, leading to delayed or inaccurate diagnoses for diseases such as cancer, tuberculosis, and infectious diseases. Globally, over 70% of medical decisions rely on laboratory tests, yet 47% of the world’s population lacks access to diagnostic services (WHO, 2021). In sub-Saharan Africa, where cancer cases are projected to double by 2040, pathology services remain scarce. Automated slide stainers improve accuracy and efficiency but are largely inaccessible due to their high cost, often exceeding $10,000 per unit. As a result, millions of patients experience diagnostic delays, affecting early treatment and survival rates. In Uganda and similar regions, limited pathology infrastructure means that one pathologist may serve over a million people, further straining diagnostic capacity. The reliance on manual methods increases variability in test results, reduces throughput, and contributes to misdiagnoses. Without affordable automation, laboratories struggle to meet growing healthcare demands, ultimately leading to poor patient outcomes
What is your solution?
The Low-cost Automated Slide Stainer (LASS) is an affordable and efficient solution for automating the slide staining process in pathology labs. It reduces the turnaround time, labor, and inconsistency associated with manual slide staining, ensuring high-quality and reproducible results. LASS operates by sequentially dipping slides containing samples of either blood, sputum, tissues or swabs, into staining and bathing solutions at preprogrammed time, these are then analyzed under a microscope to help diagnose diseases such as malaria, bacterial infections, cancer and tuberculosis. Its telemedicine feature enables remote diagnosis of these diseases hence its suitability for resource limited healthcare settings. The system uses a combination of electromechanical components, sensors, and software to control the staining process, maintaining consistency and accuracy while reducing human error. Each device is designed to stain multiple protocols eliminating the need for having several machines. By integrating local materials and simplifying the design, we’ve managed to reduce production costs significantly. LASS also allows for scalability and adaptability to different lab sizes. LASS’s automation minimizes the workload of pathologists, reduces diagnostic delays, and improves the quality of results, making it an ideal solution for resource-constrained health systems
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Our solution serves pathologists, laboratory technicians, healthcare providers in low-resource settings. Academic and research institutions that train future healthcare professionals and conduct research also benefit from improved staining and diagnostic tools. Pathologists in these areas are often overwhelmed by a high volume of samples and a lack of reliable equipment, resulting in long delays and misdiagnoses. With only one pathologist per million people in Uganda, the workload is overwhelming, and diagnostic errors are common due to the reliance on manual staining processes. LASS will directly address these challenges by providing an affordable, reliable, and automated staining and diagnostic solution, reducing the time and labor needed for sample preparation. This will allow pathologists and researchers to process more samples efficiently and with greater consistency, leading to faster and more accurate results. Academic institutions can integrate LASS into their training programs, equipping students with practical experience in automated pathology workflows. By improving diagnostic capacity in healthcare and research settings, LASS will have a significant impact on patient survival, medical education, and scientific research in underserved regions.
