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Making exams safe and accessible
Cervical Cancer is highly diagnosable and treatable, and yet in Nicaragua the cervical cancer rate is six times greater than that in the U.S., with 19.4 deaths per 100,000 women.
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Screening rates and accuracy rates are 70% lower than in the U.S., resulting in cervical cancer that arises and flourishes unknowingly.
US: 83% screening rate
3.1 deaths / 100,000 women
Nicaragua: 31% screening rate
19.4 deaths / 100,000 women
Women in developing, rural areas have difficulty accessing maternal healthcare. Without proper screening, problems are left untreated. The result: hundreds of thousands of women die each year from cervical cancer.
CURRENT SITUATION: Women in remote areas are primarily served by mobile clinics. Health workers travel to different villages, which often takes hours of travel by bus, on horseback, or on foot. Exams are then performed in a community member’s home.
SO WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? Clinicians are limited to the equipment they can carry, and gynecological exam tables, which are generally heavy and bulky, cannot come along. Exams are performed on the most convenient surface, often a kitchen table, bed, or desk. This leads to some serious risks:
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Exams are difficult for the clinician to perform and uncomfortable for women receiving them.
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Surfaces that are hard to sterilize lead to risk of infection.
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Test samples can become contaminated, which is a huge source of inaccuracy in test results.
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Exam durations increase, meaning that fewer women can be examined on a given day.
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