WASHINGTON – The United States Patent and Trademark Office
(USPTO) announced in a press release the latest winners of the Patents
for Humanity program. The Patents for Humanity program was launched by the
USPTO in February 2012 as part of an initiative promoting game-changing
innovations to address long-standing development challenges.
“Each of these recipients showcases the power of innovation to help the
less fortunate around the globe,” said Under Secretary of Commerce for
Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark
Office Andrei Iancu. “By recognizing and honoring these innovators whose
creativity and curiosity dared them to solve some of the toughest humanitarian
challenges, we hope this program will continue to inspire countless more to
follow in their footsteps.”
The Patents for Humanity Award is the USPTO's top honor for applicants’
best representing the Patents for Humanity criteria. Award recipients receive
public recognition at an award ceremony arranged by the USPTO. They also
receive a certificate to accelerate certain matters before the Office.
Honorable mentions are made to applicants with promising accomplishments who
may qualify for an award in future years with further developments. Entries
were received in five categories representing pressing global needs: medicine,
nutrition, sanitation, energy, and living standards. The award ceremony is
scheduled for the fall, with arrangements forthcoming.
Following is a list of the 2018 Patents for Humanity winners:
USPTO recognized nine winners and six honorable mentions in the 2018
Patents for Humanity awards. The award winners are:
Medtronic for creating a portable, low-water kidney dialysis machine for
potential use in a wide variety of care settings, including those that lack the
infrastructure required for traditional dialysis.
U.S. National Institutes of Health for creating a low-cost, temperature
tolerant rotavirus vaccine for use in developing countries, with 3.8 million
doses ordered by the government of India’s childhood immunization program.
Little Sparrows Technologies for creating a portable low-cost
phototherapy device for treating jaundice in infants, which causes 100,000
newborn deaths a year.
Kinnos Inc. for creating time-sensitive color chemicals to ensure proper
disinfection procedures by health workers in Ebola treatment centers and other
health care settings.
Russell Crawford for creating tools for low-cost drilling of water wells
to reach deep aquifers free from soil contaminants.
Brooklyn Bridge to Cambodia Inc. for creating an affordable rice
planting device that helps Cambodian farmers improve their crop yields, and
which minimizes the number of farmers, mostly women, who have to work in the
most exhausting and unhealthy conditions.
Solight Design for designing a portable solar light that has been
distributed to over 200,000 people worldwide including many in refugee camps.
Sanivation LLC. for designing a waste processing plant that transforms
human waste into sanitary briquettes that replace wood and charcoal for heating
and cooking, with four plants serving 10,000 people in Kenya by the end of the
year.
Because International for distributing 180,000 pairs of resizable shoes
in over 95 countries, with local manufacturing taking place in Ethiopia and
plans for Haiti and Kenya.
More details on each award winner below.
Medtronic
Chronic kidney disease affects more than 700 million people worldwide,
and millions die each year from lack of treatment. Developing countries in
particular lack suitable treatment options outside of major cities. To address
this, Medtronic — one of the world's largest medical technology, services and
solutions companies — is creating a compact, portable kidney dialysis machine
for use in a wide variety of care settings, including those that lack the
infrastructure needed for traditional dialysis. The device in development
weighs about 50 pounds and is the size of a large suitcase, making it roughly
10 times smaller and lighter than conventional dialysis machines. It is
designed to only use approximately 20 liters of potable water per treatment,
which is 75 percent less than current systems. The machine is designed to be
affordable and expand patient access in more parts of the world. In China, this
device was granted priority status in 2017 under the innovative device pathway,
also known as the Green Channel. Medtronic also intends to seek regulatory
approval in other regions of the world.
U.S. National Institutes of Health
Rotavirus is a disease that affects nearly every child worldwide. While
most cases have mild symptoms, it is responsible for one third of infant
hospitalizations for severe diarrhea and kills an estimated 200,000 children a
year, mostly in developing countries. Researchers at the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) developed vaccine formulations to address the six most common forms of
rotavirus. In 2005, they partnered with the Serum Institute of India Limited
(SIIL), one of the largest vaccine manufacturers in the world, to produce the
affordable RotaSIIL vaccines in India for use in developing countries. The
vaccine is suitable for use in developing countries, lasting up to two years
without refrigeration. The government of India has ordered 3.8 million doses
for their Universal Immunization Program.
Little Sparrows Technologies
Severe jaundice causes over 100,000 preventable deaths annually among
infants in developing countries. Those who survive often suffer permanent
neurological damage. The standard treatment devices are expensive and not
suitable for low resource settings. Dr. Donna Brezinski set out to create a
portable, affordable phototherapy device that could be used in rural regions.
Her Bili-Hut device uses blue LED lights in a reflective bassinet or tent that
can run on battery power. The device is built from off-the-shelf parts and is
collapsible for transportation. Dr. Brezinski founded Little Sparrows
Technologies in 2014 to provide Bili-Hut devices worldwide after receiving seed
funding from the Saving Lives at Birth Grand Challenge. Following further testing
and refinements, the devices have been used at locations in Burundi to treat
jaundiced newborns. Little Sparrows has received two phases of funding from the
NIH’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and is working to
increase manufacturing. The World Health Organization included the Bili-Hut in
its Compendium of Medical Devices for Global Health.
Brooklyn Bridge to Cambodia Inc.
Subsistence rice farming in Cambodia is a labor-intensive activity in
order to plant each seed properly below the soil. The work is mostly done by
women, standing long hours in water and mud exposed to parasites. As younger
people increasingly move to cities for better jobs, farmers must resort to
expensive and inefficient methods like scattering seeds rather than planting
them, which substantially reduces crop yields. In 2007, the non-profit Brooklyn
Bridge to Cambodia (BB2C) was formed to provide these subsistence farmers with
better tools to improve their harvests. Engineers at BB2C created the Eli Rice
Seeder, a low-cost mechanical planting device that uses high-pressure air
blasts to shoot rice seeds under the soil at regular intervals. The device can
be carried by hand, or mounted on a cart or tractor. Using the rice seeder can
save up to 250 kilograms of seeds per hectare, worth about $200, and reduces
the planting time from 320 hours to just two hours. The seeder device, which is
sold for $940, can be purchased by groups of farmers and shared among them or
rented out to others. The devices are manufactured in Cambodia with local labor
and materials. BB2C conducts demonstrations and trainings across Cambodia and
supports farmers after purchase. Use of the Eli Rice Seeder improves crop
yields, reduces exposure to parasites, increases income, reduces pesticide use,
and reduces physical ailments among Cambodian women. BB2C has also begun a
partnership with the International Rice Research Institute to help spread the
Eli Rice Seeder throughout Southeast Asia.
Kinnos Inc.
During the Ebola outbreak in 2014, one out of every 20 deaths was a
healthcare worker who contracted the disease while treating infected patients.
This loss of healthcare personnel in West Africa has been estimated to cause an
additional 25,000 deaths per year. Effective disinfection of surfaces in
treatment centers is a top priority for health services around the world to
prevent the spread of communicable diseases. Students at Columbia University
addressed this challenge by creating chemical additives to improve surface
disinfection with chlorine. Their Highlight additive turns the disinfectant
blue so workers can verify surfaces are completely covered. The color fades
after a predetermined time to ensure the disinfectant remains in contact long
enough to kill all pathogens. Their solution improves the ability of untrained
workers to properly disinfect surfaces, and can detect when insufficient
concentrations of disinfectant are being used. Kinnos Inc. was founded to
commercialize this technology. Highlight has been used at Ebola treatment centers
in Liberia and Guinea, in Haiti for cholera, and in Uganda and Democratic
Republic of Congo. The Fire Department of New York HazMat team has also adopted
the product, and Highlight will soon be launched for use in hospitals.
Russell Crawford
Access to clean drinking water is a problem for over 800 million people
worldwide, and kills many people each year. A common solution to the problem is
drilling wells. However, most wells are “shallow wells” that become
contaminated with mud and debris from the surface, which can bring dangerous
chemicals such as arsenic into the water supply. Standard drilling equipment
and techniques limit the depth of these wells in rural regions. As a result,
estimates suggest that 30 to 50% of wells drilled in Africa are no longer
suitable for drinking water. Russell Crawford set out to fix this problem after
spending his career in the drilling industry. He designed a drilling method to
reach deeper aquifers hundreds of feet deep and avoid contamination while being
inexpensive, easy to transport, and capable of use by two drillers without
heavy equipment. Mr. Crawford licensed his technology to the Institute for
Transformational Technology at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories. He spent a month
in India and Zimbabwe teaching locals how to operate his drill. He has also
licensed his technology to others for use in Mexico, Brazil, Peru, and the
United States. Small businesses in Africa are using his drilling technology to
generate income for poor families. He has created a charity One Million Wells
that provides drilling equipment and instruction at no charge in developing
countries.
Solight Design
Access to light during the night affects 2.6 billion people without
reliable electricity. Displaced people are particularly affected, with nighttime
attacks a danger in refugee or disaster relief camps, especially for women and
children. Columbia University architecture professor Alice Min Soo Chun
designed an ultra-light-weight, portable solar lamp that could be distributed
to people living in relief camps and carried with them as they change
locations. Two models of solar lamp, one inflatable and the other foldable, are
sold Alice’s company Solight Design and two other companies (Luminaid and
Mpowerd) created by her former students. Her lights have been distributed for
disaster relief in 25 countries since 2010, including Greece, Turkey, Ghana,
Ecuador, Uganda, Haiti, South Africa, Cameroon, and Nepal, by working with NGOs
such as United Way and Operation Blessings.
Sanivation LLC
In developing regions, up to 90% of human waste is disposed of
untreated. Diseases spread by human waste are the second leading cause of death
for children under five. Sanivation saw the potential to solve not just this
waste disposal problem, but to turn human waste into a fuel product that
benefits communities. This social enterprise based in Kenya designed a
treatment plant that processes human waste with solar thermal energy to create
charcoal-like briquettes for cooking and heating needs. They have setup three
plants in Kenya which provide 2500 people a month with sanitation and energy
services that are more cost-effective than alternatives. Their briquettes burn
longer than charcoal and produce one-third the carbon monoxide and particulate
emissions, saving 88 trees per ton sold. Sanivation’s work has been supported
by the US Centers for Disease Control, the UN Refugee Agency, the Gates
Foundation, and the Kenyan government. Sanivation is building additional plants
with the goal of serving 1 million people by 2022.
Because International
Soil-transmitted illnesses affect over 1.5 billion people in the world,
many of whom are children who simply don’t have a pair of shoes. These
illnesses can lead to nutritional and physical impairment, inability to attend
school, and physical suffering. Because International is a non-profit dedicated
to providing shoes for children in poverty. However, shoes donated from
industrialized countries do not always work well: children outgrow donated
shoes, and they often fall apart. To remedy this, because founder Kenton Lee
designed an adjustable sandal-like shoe that can be expanded as a child grows.
The shoes can be made with local materials and last for years. Over the past 3
years, Because International has distributed 180,000 pairs of “The Shoe” to
children in over 95 countries. They recently started producing shoes in
Ethiopia, providing jobs for impoverished communities, and plan to open other
facilities in Haiti and Kenya soon.
Following is a list of the 2018 Patents for Humanity honorable mentions:
Shift Labs for developing an electronic device that monitors the amount
of intravenous medication given during gravity infusions to replace
un-monitored delivery in areas with healthcare worker shortages.
Case Western Reserve University for creating a portable, quick
hemoglobin scanner that can detect sickle cell and other blood conditions
Vanderbilt University for distributing antibodies for Zika virus to
other researchers to develop vaccines and treatments
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for creating a low-cost,
simple-to-assemble, and easy-to-maintain mosquito trap to reduce the spread of
diseases in resource limited settings.
Folia Water Inc. for developing an inexpensive paper water filter and
holder that is affordable to low income customers and can be distributed to
urban and remote areas for removing pathogens
Prof Arup SenGupta of Lehigh University for creating economically
sustainable Hybrid Ion Exchange Nanotechnology to mitigate arsenic and fluoride
crisis of contaminated groundwater in South & Southeast Asia.