Accra, Oct 31, GNA – Some students at the Accra Technical University (ATU) have designed groundbreaking innovations that when developed could improve health care delivery in the country.
Prototypes of the innovations were displayed at the innovation fair of the Africa Health Research and Innovation project.
Some of the innovations included Blood warmer, thermoelectrical vaccine carrier, dehumidifier, Oxygen bags and vest, potable dialysis machine, aerospray vacuum stainer, auto bin waste segregator, among others.
Under the project, ATU in collaboration with the Design Thinking Ghana Hub secured a $152,869 grant from the UKaid through the Research and
Innovation Systems for Africa (RISA) Fund to among other things, harness and develop talents of young innovators and develop health innovations to address local health needs.
There were about 150 students from 22 teams that participated in the prototyping and testing of innovations.
Professor Amevi Acakpovi, the acting Vice Chancellor of ATU, urged the students to own their innovations beyond the life span of the ongoing project as the school would launch an incubation centre that would model the innovations appropriately.
“We can further support with some funds to make some of them very substantial so that we can go far with them” he said.
He said adopting innovation and excellence as the core principle of technical education was the surest way to guarantee that graduates could meet the job expectations and professional standards in the world of work.
He observed that there was a loss of confidence in the capabilities of technical universities, saying that “you see a lot of people having challenges, but they prefer to even try somebody by the side of the road than trying the university.”
He called on corporate institutions to trust the technical know-how of the technical universities.
Madam Chioma Ogbozor, Coordinator for Country Innovation Platform at the Ghana Health Service, commended the students for the innovations that were user-centred.
She urged the university to, among other things, consider registering its yet to be launched innovation hub as an entity that could have access to funds for innovators, have attractive percentages of funds for student innovators to motivate them and apply for funds that support innovation.
Dr Nicholas Adjebu, DIrector Biomedical Engineering Department, Ministry of Health, observed that the country had for the past years adopted innovations that were designed not to solve peculiar problems of Ghanaians.
He said it was inspiring for students to have training on logical thinking to solve Ghanaian problems.
GNA