Hon Weng Chong: Paging Dr. Smartphone

Pneumonia kills more children than any other cause, according to the World Health Organization. While treatable with antibiotics, each year the lung infection claims roughly 1.4 million kids before their fifth birthday, 18 percent of under-five deaths. Most of the deaths occur in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where access to doctors and drugs is limited.

Hon Weng Chong, a 24-year-old student at Melbourne Medical School, has developed a quick way to diagnose children in areas where health care is scarce. He’s built a stethoscope that can plug into a smartphone and doesn’t require medical training to use. “It seems simple that you just have to diagnose someone and give them antibiotics,” Chong says. “The problem is, how do you diagnose them?”