Watch: 5 videos of killer emerging market health and wellness startups

UNESCO partner, Netexplo, is a future-facing initiative that helps businesses from France figure out how to cash in on tech innovation around the world. Through a network of about 200 journalists, scientists and academics, the initiative acknowledges brilliant ideas. The top 100 form the Netexplo 100 which aims to provide an overview of digital innovation happing in the world.

At the Netexplo Forum, the top 100 are further whittled down and acknowledged by a jury of independent personalities from the academic world, research and international organisations.

We dug through the Netexplo 100 for 2013 and found five intriguing ideas from emerging markets that could push the health and wellness industries forward in interesting ways.

We’ll check in later this month when Netexplo announces the winning ideas for 2013.

WinSenga — Uganda

WinSenga is a type of hand-held pregnancy scanner developed by Students at Uganda’s Makerere University. The machine which is operated through a Windows Phone app, consists of a funnel-like horn, similar to the one used by midwives, to scan a pregnant woman’s womb. It can detect problems such as ectopic pregnancy or abnormal foetal heart beats.

CardioPad — Cameroon

Cardiopad is a medical tablet that enables heart examinations such as the electrocardiogram (ECG) to be performed. The results of the tests can be transferred over a cellular network to specialists for interpretation. The device, developed by Arthur Zang, a 24 year-old Cameroonian engineer, uses a custom Windows x86 kernel that has been adapted run on ARM architecture.

Sparkins — Indonesia

Sparkins is a digital version of the Perkins Brailler which helps the blind or visually impaired learn the Perkins Brailler — the popular braille typewriter for the blind. Targeted at children it works the same as the Perkins Brailler but uses multi-touch input from a Windows 7 powered tablet PC. The typed braille will appear in the top of the screen alongside its Latin alphabet and includes voice output.

China Survival Manual — China

Some failed economic Chinese policies such as government taxation and other fees have lead some in the Chinese food industry to take shortcuts in their production processes. This has led to health risks and food scares. The China Survival Manual app was developed to help Chinese citizens remain aware of the country’s many food scandals. It had an estimated 200 000 downloads in its first week.

Virtual Fridge Lock — Brazil

One of the sillier entries in this list, but compelling for its merging offline and online worlds, The Virtual Fridge Lock taps into the power of social media to motivate people towards better eating habits. The device attaches to the user’s fridge and posts on their social networks when they go for an ‘unauthorized’ snack.

The Virtual Fridge Lock was created by by JWT of São Paulo to help Meta Real’s new clients stick with their weight-loss programmes.