MalariaSpot belongs to the social company Spotlab.
We create simple, low-cost, innovative technology solutions applied to global health problems.
A multidisciplinary orchestra with a common goal, to contribute to a better world.
What is MalariaSpot?
Malaria is one of the most serious threats to global health, with more than 200 million cases a year and which kills half a million people.
The standard way to diagnose this disease is to count the number of parasites in blood samples using a microscope.
This process may take up to 30 minutes. And there are not enough specialists in the world to diagnose all cases of malaria.
MalariaSpot is a project that wants to solve this problem with citizen participation. Together we can contribute to the diagnosis.
How do we do it?
We turn the diagnostic process into a video game and combine the results of the players so that we obtain a reliable result.
We did it MalariaSpot (2012), with Tuberculosis in TuberSpot (2014). And also MalariaSpot Bubbles to differentiate the different species of parasites.
We know it works. MalariaSpot volunteers from 95 countries played more than 12,000 games that generated a database of 270,000 clicks.
The fusion of the results of 22 inexperienced volunteers allows obtaining a parasite count as accurate as that of an expert microscopist.
Scientific Publications
Crowdsourcing Malaria Parasite Quantification: An Online Game for Analyzing Images of Infected Thick Blood Smears , Journal of Medical Internet Research 2012;14(6):e167 – M. Luengo-Oroz, A. Arranz, J. Frean
Gamers join real-life fight against malaria and tuberculosis, The Lancet Infectious Diseases , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , 418 – L. Albers
Collaborative intelligence and gamification for on-line malaria species differentiation, Malaria Journal volume 18, Article number: 21 (2019), María Linares, María Postigo, Daniel Cuadrado, (+11)
Recognitions and awards
The project has been awarded by Madrid with the MVISION Idea2 Award to promote biomedical technology innovation.
In 2015 the Lego Foundation named it one of the 10 most innovative educational projects.
Finalist in the Rockefeller Foundation Next Century Innovators Awards.
In 2015 he received the Social Innovation Award by MIT Technology Review in Spanish.
Miguel Luengo Oroz, founder of the project, was named a social entrepreneur by the Ashoka Foundation in 2013.
Miguel Luengo Oroz, founder of the project, was named a social entrepreneur by the Ashoka Foundation in 2013.