Developing a telemicroscopy system for remote diagnosis of malaria using instant messaging

Abstract

In this study, components for implementing an instant messenger-operable telemicroscopy system with integrated automated malaria diagnosis were developed. This system is intended to help medical professionals in their fight against malaria by speeding up the diagnostic procedure. The first component is the telemicroscopy system which was able to execute most of the functions of the microscope with a delay of about two seconds taken from the time the command was sent and the command was executed. The other method is the detection of Plasmodium from Giemsa–Stained malaria positive blood samples. The developed detection method was able to detect malaria in 15 out of 18 malaria-positive samples.