In crisis zones, where war, devastation, and humanitarian disasters severely restrict access to basic medical care, rapid diagnostics are critical. Conflicts in regions such as Ukraine, Syria, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Afghanistan, Palestine, and Lebanon have displaced millions, leaving refugees and other vulnerable populations without access to medical services. According to UNHCR and other sources, Palestine and Lebanon face significant refugee flows and ongoing conflicts, justifying their inclusion as crisis zones. Laboratories and qualified medical professionals are often unavailable in these areas. Refugees and affected populations face health risks requiring immediate diagnosis: anemia, infections, inflammation, or uncontrolled diabetes can be life-threatening without timely intervention. AIMA, an innovative AI-powered blood analysis technology, is transforming humanitarian medicine in these challenging environments.
AIMA: A Life-Saving Technology
AIMA is an artificial intelligence platform designed for rapid and accurate blood diagnostics. Leveraging machine learning, it analyzes key hematological parameters with high precision, delivering results in minutes. Unlike traditional laboratory methods, which require complex equipment and 5–7 days for processing, AIMA provides a fast, reliable solution tailored to the challenges of humanitarian crises, performing effectively even in field conditions.
Advantages of AIMA in Crisis Zones
Preliminary Screening in Resource-Scarce Settings
In conflict zones such as Ukraine, Sudan, or Syria, medical infrastructure is often destroyed, and doctors are either absent or overwhelmed. AIMA enables on-site primary blood screening in refugee camps or field hospitals, conducted by personnel with minimal medical training. Its user-friendly design ensures accessibility, making it critical for detecting conditions such as anemia, inflammation, infections, or diabetes, which can be fatal without prompt treatment.
Instant Diagnostics for Urgent Decisions
In critical situations, such as sepsis, thrombosis, or exacerbations of chronic diseases, waiting a week for test results is impossible. AIMA minimizes diagnostic time, providing near-instant patient health data. This allows humanitarian teams to quickly initiate treatment, refer patients to specialized facilities, or adjust therapies.
Operation Without Laboratories or Specialized Staff
Laboratories are scarce in crisis zones, and qualified technicians are even rarer. AIMA’s portable system requires no complex laboratory equipment or constant power supply. Paired with the cloud-based AIMA platform, its portable blood collection devices enable analysis in resource-limited settings, making it ideal for field conditions where traditional medicine is inaccessible.
Humanitarian Access to Healthcare
AIMA is a cornerstone of humanitarian aid, reducing diagnostic costs, minimizing patient transportation needs, and expanding healthcare coverage. For refugees deprived of basic medical services, AIMA enables early detection of health issues, bridging the gap to accessible diagnostics and essential care.
Real-World Applications: Addressing Global Crises
Ukraine: Support Amid War
With over 6 million refugees and 8 million internally displaced people due to the conflict ongoing since 2022, Ukraine faces uneven medical resource distribution. AIMA can be deployed in mobile medical units to screen refugees and affected populations, identifying conditions like anemia in children or inflammation in the wounded, enabling rapid humanitarian aid without delays from laboratory results.
Sudan: Responding to the World’s Largest Displacement Crisis
Sudan’s nearly two-year civil war has displaced millions, particularly in Red Sea State and North Darfur. AIMA serves as a critical diagnostic tool, complementing AI applications like X-ray interpretation to address specialist shortages. It provides blood analysis to detect infections or chronic diseases in refugee camp populations.
Syria: Diagnostics Amid Prolonged Conflict
With over 6 million refugees and 1 million newly displaced in late 2024, Syria remains a major crisis zone. AIMA supports humanitarian missions by rapidly identifying conditions like diabetes or infections, enabling treatment prioritization over lengthy diagnostics, especially for vulnerable groups such as children, the elderly, and pregnant women.
Democratic Republic of Congo: Tackling Ongoing Violence
The DRC hosts millions of displaced people due to persistent armed conflicts. AIMA’s portable diagnostics can address health challenges like anemia and infections in remote areas, supporting humanitarian efforts where infrastructure is limited.
Afghanistan: Addressing Hunger and Displacement
With nearly 19 million people facing severe hunger and hundreds of thousands displaced since 2021, Afghanistan’s healthcare system is strained. AIMA can provide rapid blood screening in refugee camps to identify critical conditions, supporting overburdened medical teams.
Palestine: Aid in Refugee Camps
Over 6 million Palestinian refugees live in camps across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and the West Bank, facing ongoing violence and hunger. AIMA’s technology delivers essential diagnostics in these camps, meeting critical health needs in challenging conditions.
Lebanon: Support During the Israel-Hezbollah Conflict
The recent Israel-Hezbollah war has displaced many in Lebanon, exacerbating the region’s refugee crisis. AIMA’s mobile diagnostics can provide critical health assessments in temporary shelters, ensuring timely care for displaced populations.
Benefits for Humanitarian Organizations
Time and Resource Efficiency
Traditional laboratory analyses require significant investments in equipment, reagents, and logistics. AIMA reduces these costs by delivering results via a cloud-based platform accessible from any device, allowing organizations to allocate funds to medications and other critical needs.
Scalability
AIMA can be deployed across dozens of refugee camps or field hospitals simultaneously. Its adaptability suits diverse environments, from urban ruins in Ukraine to remote regions in the DRC.
Training and Support for Volunteers
The platform’s intuitive interface enables use by volunteers with limited medical expertise, expanding the reach of humanitarian missions in areas with few trained medical professionals.
Challenges and Opportunities
Infrastructure Limitations
Even portable technologies like AIMA require minimal internet or power access, which can be challenging in crisis zones.
Training Needs
Volunteers and medical staff require training to use the platform, necessitating time and resources.
Building Trust in AI
Skepticism toward AI in some communities requires education and outreach efforts.
These challenges are manageable. Partnerships with organizations like GAVI or WHO can provide funding and logistics for AIMA’s implementation. Successful AI applications, such as X-ray interpretation in Sudan, demonstrate technology’s growing role in crisis zones.
The Future of Humanitarian Medicine
AIMA (AI powered blood diagnostics) offers hope to millions in crisis zones, delivering rapid and accurate diagnostics where traditional medicine is inaccessible. From detecting anemia among Ukraine’s refugees to managing infections in Sudan’s camps, AIMA saves time, resources, and lives. In a world facing increasingly frequent humanitarian crises, AIMA is not just an innovation but a necessity. It paves the way for making basic healthcare a right, not a privilege, even in the most challenging conditions. AIMA is open to collaboration with clinics and laboratories in crisis and war zones, as well as with medical institutions worldwide, to save lives on a global scale.