The best inventions set out to improve life conditions. That was Arthur Zang’s vision when he started searching for a way to bring cardiac care to his native country of Cameroon, where less than 50 cardiologists exist for more than 20 million people.
Zang invented the Cardio Pad, a wireless device with a diagnostic kit that allows African patients in remote areas to receive medical examinations without traveling to urban centers. Rural health-care workers use the device to conduct exams and send cardiac test results to specialists.
When Zang realized he held a solution to cardiac health in the palm of his hand, he turned to the intellectual property (IP) system to help advance his work. In an interview with WIPO Magazine, Zang said he obtained a patent to bring funds to the product. “I did it to reassure myself [and] also to protect the product, and to have a lot more credibility in the eyes of, for example, partners with whom I wanted to sign contracts in order to be able to produce and then sell the product.”
"The intellectual property system can help us in Africa – it can add credibility to African products…if you aren’t credible, it’s difficult to sell your product.”
- Arthur Zang, in an interview with WIPO Magazine.
Thanks in part to the intellectual property system, Zang is already on his way towards developing other medical devices. In 2014, Zang was selected as a Rolex Award Young Laureate for applied technology and received a $50,000 grant. His company is now creating other devices to assist medical examinations in developing nations.
