Viwipe

What it does

Cervical cancer is one of the biggest killers among young women, with half avoiding smear tests due to embarrassment and fear. Viwipe offers a women-centric, non-invasive, low-cost solution using menstrual blood and paper-based technology for HPV testing.

Your inspiration

Cervical cancer, the fourth biggest killer, claims the lives of 342,000 women every year. 99% of cervical cancer cases are linked to HPV infection. The screening has been uncomfortable for me and my female friends, as the speculum remains unchanged for 200 years, raising concerns about its history. Public Health England reports that 45% of young women under 35 avoid screenings due to embarrassment and fear. While urine and feces are used for biomarker analysis, menstrual blood remains unexplored. We aim to explore the medical potential of menstrual blood and transform paper technology into a user-friendly format – easy to use as toilet paper.

How it works

Viwipe has three layers and costs under 5 pounds. The top layer with reserved 3mm holes and body-safe waterproof backing for wiping. The middle layer has custom filter paper that quantitatively retains menstrual blood using pre-cut 3mm discs. For small samples, lab staff can manually remove the discs, and for larger samples, barcodes and positioning marks align with preprocessing systems. The bottom layer is for hand placement guidance. After use, Viwipe is delivered in triple packaging without needing a cold chain, allowing for biological safety transport and storage. Lab staff extract blood-soaked paper, perform genetic material extraction, amplify using LAMP for detection, and analyze the results for users. The extraction process ensures high-quality genetic material for screening in under 10 minutes. The screening targets high-risk HPV types linked to cervical cancer, delivering results with high sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy in under 30 minutes.

Design process

Viwipe began with a co-design workshop that brought together users and lab personnel to brainstorm user-friendly self-tests. Most ideas centred around redesigning period products but ended in huge manufacturing costs. To tackle this, we developed two prototypes: the 'Sticker' featuring wax-based microfluidics for cost-effective mass production and compatibility with any menstrual product, and the 'Paperfuge' intended to explore disease detection potential. But they all encountered obstacles related to user-friendliness. To solve it, we worked on system touchpoints and behavior with the 'Toilet Paper' prototypes. But the issue of high entry barriers was raised. Therefore, Viwipe actively fostered community engagement by offering free on-campus test prototype stands alongside complimentary period products, more accessible to everyone. To overcome the limits of paper-based technology, Viwipe pursued cross-disciplinary collaboration. To ensure seamless communication with users, we adhered to medical regulations and implemented user-centric strategies, encouraging follow-up tests through various media platforms. Viwipe has three stages of evaluations of community engagement design, test kits design and communication design, ending with excellent user participation and results.

How it is different

Viwipe revolutionizes cervical screening by integrating menstrual blood with paper-based technology, offering novel, low-cost, and accurate HPV test kits. First, Viwipe's human-centred approach transfers paper-based blood collection (DBS) into the form of toilet paper to reduce costs and simplify the user experience. Community engagement design breaks social taboos and ensures accessibility for all. Second, Viwipe innovates the traditional DBS for menstrual blood collection, enabling rapid and electricity-free extraction of genetic material. Its proprietary molecular-based screening targets high-risk HPV with high sensitivity and accuracy, delivering results in under 30 minutes. Third, Viwipe's non-invasive, low-cost, and non-hazardous features, allow cold-chain-free transport and storage. Its innovative preprocessing method caters to both manual rapid detection and large-scale automatic identification, overcoming sample collection and processing limits.

Future plans

Viwipe's mission is to positively impact cervical health, specifically targeting the 300,000 annual deaths from cervical cancer. Our goal is to eliminate cervical cancer, save lives, and improve screening accessibility. We prioritize biological safety and see the potential for self-testing to detect other diseases. Viwipe plans to publish research, participate in entrepreneurial competitions, and build a user-centered social media community to foster discussions, offer open-source consultation, and promote interdisciplinary research on cervical cancer.

Awards

1. The Mayor's Entrepreneur Competition Semi-Finalist 2. Imperial College London We Innovate Semi-Finalist