Israeli innovators have won a prestigious prize for a smartphone attachment that can be used to detect cervical cancer.

Tel Aviv-based Mobile OCT and its American partners were placed first in the 2014 Vodafone Americas Foundation Wireless Innovation Project.

The £180,000 prize money will help fund development and testing of the device, which will be available in October.

"It has all the ease of a smartphone but all the power of a much more complex screening device," said company co-founder Ariel Beery.

The device will appeal in particular to medical organisations in poorly resourced countries that cannot afford imaging devices currently on the market and screen with the naked eye instead.