Homegrown Digital Innovation Paving the Way for Accessible Pathology
Across much of Africa, timely access to pathology services remains out of reach for many. With just one pathologist per million people in some regions, patients often wait weeks for a diagnosis — delays that can mean the difference between life and death.
At Meru University of Science and Technology (MUST), a groundbreaking project is reshaping that future. With support from the County Government of Meru, researchers have launched the Kenya Open Telepathology Project — a powerful, locally developed response to a critical healthcare gap.
Bridging the Distance with Digital Tools
At the heart of the project is a low-cost digital microscope, designed to capture high-quality images of pathology slides in rural clinics. But the real breakthrough comes in the next step: artificial intelligence (AI).
The project team has successfully trained AI algorithms to differentiate between benign and malignant tissue — one of the most fundamental tasks in surgical pathology. This allows a sample taken in a remote village to be digitally pre-screened by AI and then reviewed by a pathologist hundreds of kilometers away, all within a dramatically shortened timeframe.
Built in Kenya. Designed for Africa.
The Kenya Open Telepathology Project is more than a technical achievement — it’s a vision for equitable healthcare. It’s proof that world-class innovation can be built from the ground up, by Africans, for African health systems.