The technology, being trialled at Mildura Base Hospital and Cabrini Hospital in Melbourne, could revolutionise access to health services in remote locations.

Monash University students Jarrel Seah and Jennifer Tang are gaining global recognition for their Eyenaemia mobile phone app, which gives users an anaemia risk assessment within minutes based on a self-taken photograph of their lower eyelid.

The trials so far have shown that the app can detect up to 95 per cent of people with severe anaemia.

Last week the pair won first place and $50,000 in Microsoft’s Imagine Cup competition in Seattle. Mr Seah and Ms Tang will also meet with Microsoft founder Bill Gates as part of their prize. The pair beat competitors from around the world.

Mr Seah said the long distances many patients had to travel for medical appointments in rural Victoria helped inspire the technological breakthrough.

“Especially for parents of young kids or pregnant women to make that trip was very difficult,” he said. “We thought it might be good to have a way to screen themselves at home or to have outreach workers…able to screen them on the spot when they go to outlying areas.”

The pair built the system themselves. They hope to eventually make Eyenaemia available to people worldwide, including remote communities with little access to health services.

Mr Seah and Ms Tang have completed placements at hospitals in Mildura and Swan Hill.

Anaemia is a caused by a deficiency in red blood cells, which can be the result of a poor diet or other diseases and disorders.

Eyenaemia users snap a picture of their lower eyelid with their phone alongside a thumb-size colour chart that allows a computer system to screen for anaemia based on the colour of the eyelid. The photographs can also be entered into a website or sent via email.

Ms Tang said 2 billion people worldwide suffered from anaemia, which is particularly dangerous for pregnant women. “Anaemia can predispose you to things but anaemia can also be an indication of other underlying conditions,” she said.

Microsoft paid for Benjamin Preiss’s trip to Seattle for the Imagine Cup.