Chlamydia, the most common sexually transmitted bacteria, is the major cause of infertility in women, and the second most common cause of infectious blindness in the world. If diagnosed early it can be treated with a single dose of antibiotics. But like other diseases such as HIV, hepatitis, and trachoma, it often goes unchecked simply because the test for it rarely makes it to the countries that need it most.

In this conversation, Alana Conner, senior editor of the Stanford Social Innovation Review and co-host of Stanford Social Innovations Conversations, interviews Dr. Helen Lee, director of the Diagnostics Development Unit at the University of Cambridge. Lee discusses how her department and affiliated company, Diagnostics for the Real World, have developed and distributed to developing countries tests that rapidly and efficiently detect a number of serious infectious conditions, thereby allowing patients to be treated on the spot. DDU/DRW won the 2007 Swanson Health Award, administered by the Tech Museum in San Jose, Calif.