Durban - South Africa’s Edmund Wessels was named co-winner of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s 2023 Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation for his FlexiGyn project.
The ceremony was held in Accra, Ghana, on July 6, the first awards in person since 2019.
The Johannesburg-born biomedical engineer said he was excited beyond belief to win the Africa Prize and to know this will help to get the product’s name out and find the right partners to complete FlexiGyn’s journey.
Wessels, the co-founder of VAS Medtech with partner Chris Meunier, said: “Winning the Africa Prize enhances our purpose to make women’s health care convenient and accessible. The more visibility we get, the more likely others will start to innovate in this space too, solving problems for the people who need it most.”
He said he and Meunier – who was born and raised in Bloemfontein – initially conceptualised the product in 2016 because the current tools in South African health care weren’t designed to be mobile and did not prioritise patient comfort.
“Current devices require general anaesthesia to manage discomfort. Comfort has never been a central factor. We wondered how we could design this tool for women rather than just designing a medical device to be used on women.
“We realised at the end of 2022 that this tool could be used by other medical professionals beyond gynaecologists, and could include general practitioners and nurses ‒ widening access to reproductive health care. We wanted to make something mobile that could be used in remote/rural areas.”
Wessels said they were currently working with expert networks to make the product available in South Africa by the end of 2025, but this was dependent on funding.
“We don’t have a fixed price point at this time. We are aiming to come in at 1/10th of the price of current products designed to examine a woman’s uterus that gynaecologists have indicated they’re willing to pay. With the device, we hope to reduce operating costs of hysteroscopy machines by two thirds,” he said.
He shared the award with Ugandan electrical engineer Anatoli Kirigwajjo.
Kirigwajjo’s Yunga project is a local digital security network that connects neighbours to each other and to police within a 20km radius through a physical device, smartphone app or SMS service, providing security at low cost.
The Independent on Saturday