The OpenFlexure Microscope has been selected for the 2024 WHO compendium of innovative health technologies for low-resource settings, and Finalist for the MIT Solve 2024 Global Health Equity Challenge. The World Health organisation and the MIT Solve Challenge have recognised the innovation of the OpenFlexure Microscope for addressing healthcare inequalities.

The WHO compendium of innovative health technologies for low-resource settings assesses innovative healthcare technologies and selects a small number to present in detail. Dr Yukiko Nakatani (WHO Assistant Director-General, Access to Medicines and Health Products) writes “By providing evidence-based assessments, we empower decision-makers to make informed choices that will ultimately improve health outcomes and enhance health-care delivery.”

MIT Solve seeks exceptional and diverse solutions to the most pressing global challenges from anyone, anywhere in the world. A multi-stage process has whittled down hundreds of potential solutions to a dozen finalists from which six will be selected for support to reach their potential.

The OpenFlexure Microscope is a high resolution robotic microscope which is designed in collaboration with manufacturers and users around the world. The open design process keeps the development aligned with the needs and challenges of users and manufacturers in a wide range of contexts. A key principle is that the microscope should be locally manufacturable and locally serviced, meeting locally specific performance requirements and supporting local high value jobs. Developments to the core design from the University of Bath have focussed on the specific application of Malaria diagnosis under the EPSRC grant EP/R013969/1 Detailed malaria diagnostics with intelligent microscopy, with clinical and manufacturing partners in Tanzania. This programme allowed the performance of locally produced OpenFlexure microscopes to be tested in clinical settings and led to hardware and software developments to improve clinical applicability, ease of use and ease of manufacture.

The OpenFlexure microscope has a world-wide community, using the microscope in more than 50 countries for a wide range of applications from pathology training and cell biology to helping farmers in Argentina to understand the health of their soil.