General 4 — HemaChrome

Our Science

Sufficient healthy red blood cell count is the paramount sign of blood health. Anemia, a modern Latin term from Greek anaimia (an- ‘without’ + haima ‘blood’) is characterized by a low amount of hemoglobin (or red blood cells) in the blood. Conventional blood hemoglobin tests are routinely used to check general health status as one of the most common clinical laboratory tests. Blood hemoglobin tests are also extensively performed to assess hematologic disorders, transfusion initiation, hemorrhage, and acute kidney injury. More importantly, anemia is a major public health problem in developing countries. But, if unattended and prolonged, this can be death.

Low hemoglobin levels can occur for any number of reasons:

Infectious diseases, such as malaria and HIV/AIDS

Cancer patients and treatments

Nutritional deficiency especially for children, women of reproductive age, and pregnant women

Disorder involving red blood cell abnormality, such as sickle cell disease

Chronic hematological disorder
Traumatic injury or hemorrhage

The gold standard and most common way of measuring an amount of hemoglobin in the blood is a clinical laboratory hemoglobin test by taking a venous blood sample via needle. This method, however, is invasive, cumbersome, expensive, takes a long time, and is not always readily available or accessible especially in low-resource settings.

Clinical examinations of paleness in the inner eyelids, the nailbed, the tongue, and the palm have been extensively studied. Among the examination sites, the inner eyelid provides a better clinical sign for low blood hemoglobin level, because the microvasculature redness of the inner eyelid is easily seen. Our mHealth technology transforms such a clinical examination into a laboratory comparable assessment of blood hemoglobin level.

If a low blood hemoglobin level is detected in a timely manner, life-saving interventions are readily available. In addition, nutritional anemia can easily be treated by diet counseling, folic acid/iron supplement, and remedies using natural herbs. Community health workers in rural villages can significantly enhance blood health awareness and reduce the morbidity and mortality caused by low hemoglobin level.

Our science addresses the problem of a gap in access to blood hemoglobin testing.