This Lady Doctor built a simple smartphone-mounted device with IIT Delhi that can detect breast cancer at just 1% of global cost

Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon Dr Komal Gupta, in collaboration with IIT Delhi, built a simple 3D-printed device that fits onto a smartphone camera and can tell if the entire breast cancer has been removed or not.

Doctor invents smartphone-mounted device that can detect breast cancer at just 1% of global cost

“Some chapters of your life shape you in ways you only understand years later,” the doctor shared on social media. “My MS (General Surgery) thesis at AIIMS, New Delhi was one of them,” she added.

“In collaboration with IIT Delhi, we built a device that costs almost 1% of the market goldstandard. A simple 3D-printed device that fits onto a smartphone camera… and can tell you if you’ve removed the entire cancer or not.”

Gupta’s innovation enables breast cancer care to be accessible in India.

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Journey from a 17-YO college kid to becoming an inventor

“For me, that shift happened in 2013, when I first walked into AIIMS, New Delhi as a 17-year-old who barely knew the world,” Dr. Komal Gupta shared on Instagram.

“I didn’t know what discipline truly meant,” she said. “I didn’t know what excellence looked like up close. I definitely didn’t know who I would become.”

But 12 years at AIIMS, New Delhi, and an MBBS, MS, and MCh later, that single opportunity set off a chain of events that shaped her into a plastic surgeon, she recalled.

“They say you are the average of the five people you surround yourself with,” the young doctor said.

“At AIIMS, New Delhi, those people were brilliant, driven, relentless dreamers. Their success wasn’t intimidating, it was infectious and inspiring. Being around people who constantly pushed boundaries made me believe I could push mine too,” she added.

She said that the journey was not easy for her. 

“It was surreal to sit in rooms where pioneers from engineering and surgery sketched an idea from nothing and brought it to life,” she remarked.

“I spent those days as a full-time surgeon and part-time physicist, juggling between AIIMS Delhi and IIT Delhi, revisiting optical physics I had long forgotten… and loving every exhausting moment of it,” she said.

She validated the final device during surgeries. Her work was published and won awards at national and international conferences, earning her an international travelling fellowship.

Based on the dissertation results, the device received recognition and funding from the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, for further development.

“Some projects don’t just make you better at your craft, they remind you why you chose it,” the doctor said.

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