By Ebele Orakpo

The importance of health and healthcare cannot be overemphasized. Sir Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom said that ‘healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.’ Mahatma Gandhi, Indian lawyer and anti-colonial nationalist noted that ‘health is the real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.’ So the greatest gift a government can give to its people is quality and affordable healthcare.

Unfortunately, the healthcare system in most countries is quite poor and many governments, especially in developing countries, budget very little for the health sector, and so, they lack the infrastructure for efficient healthcare delivery. As of today, millions of people the world over, especially in developing countries, do not have access to adequate health care and where they do, the cost is prohibitive.

Worried by the lack of access to adequate health care service, the high patient-doctor ratio, and high cost of medicare, a US-based Nigerian Emergency Response medical practitioner and Chief Executive Officer at Ruskat Medical Equipment Corporation, USA, Dr Steve Ayanruoh, invented a machine he calls Hospital-in-a-box way back in 2005 and last year, the machine was upgraded to carry out more tests. “The machine has been in existence since 2005. The current one with the laboratory, sonogram and twice as much capability, just came out in September 2024,” Ayanruoh said.

Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention. Sharing the story of Hospital-in-a-box with Vanguard, Dr. Ayanruoh said: “As a pediatrician in the US, I went to work one winter morning, only to find out that I was the only one in the clinic to attend to about three patients at the same time. So, I said to myself: ‘If only I could do something that will aid their treatment.’

Ayanruoh says their mission is to ”take affordable quality healthcare to the four corners of the world (including areas hitherto inaccessible) irrespective of colour, race, religious beliefs and economic status.”

“Hospital-in-a-box is a state-of-the-art integrated medical device created out of the need to take quality healthcare to those who need it wherever they are,” he said.

 Having been in the field and experienced first-hand the inadequacies in healthcare delivery, Ayanruoh provides ”all the devices required for a high quality comprehensive medical examination in a portable box. It also makes it possible to have expert advice in real-time irrespective of where the patient is.”

What the machine does

According to the inventor, the machine can do the following: Vitals (digital weigh, temperature, pulse oximetry, blood pressure, heart rate); Heart (6 Lead EKG, heart failure analysis, auscultation); Lungs (spirometry, lung function, nebulizer); Ears (otoscopy); Imaging (thoracic ultrasound, vascular ultrasound, abdominal ultrasound); Eyes (ophthalmoscopy) and Lab work (urinalysis, blood glucose, malaria, pregnancy, COVID tests, etc.)

Describing how the machine works, Ayanruoh said: ”When a patient visits a healthcare provider, the vital signs and other relevant medical data are collected and automatically uploaded to a secure cloud-based platform.

This information is immediately accessible to doctors from anywhere in the world, allowing them to log in, review the data and perform a thorough assessment. The doctor can then make a diagnosis and provide prescriptions remotely. The local healthcare provider receives these prescriptions and administers the necessary treatment.”

The problems of high patient-doctor ratio (a single doctor can oversee multiple units); hard-to-reach areas (can be easily transported and set up to offer immediate medical care in places without access to hospitals); lack of electricity (it can be operated in a car with a functioning cigarette lighter. Batteries could be charged with generators, often includes solar panels or other alternative power sources to ensure functionality in off-grid areas), are effectively solved by the machine.

“With its telemedicine facilities, real-time medical examination and prescriptions can be provided by medical doctors and professionals in distant places. It streamlines various administrative tasks such as scheduling billing, prescription ordering, thereby reducing time spent on paperwork,” he said, adding that  “everyone needs the machine including government and government agencies, doctors’ offices, medical emergency and services companies, medical personnel training institutions, hospitals and military units. The machine can be tailored to meet the specific health requirements of different regions or for particular medical scenarios.”