The Carecradle for Remote Monitoring of Critical Newborns

Sepsis and pneumonia cause 28% of infant mortality; early intervention saves lives. In India however, critical babies are often discharged to uneducated homes where parents miss early signs. The govt’s home care programs (ASHA, ANM) for high-risk babies require significant manpower and have in-frequent visits. Working with Indian Govt (NHM) and UNICEF officials, we are developing CareCradle: a home based remote monitoring system for high-risk infants. Daily, a single button push triggers measurement of the baby’s weight, temperature and records a 5-min video. Remote SNCU staff wirelessly review for deterioration, lethargy, breath rate, grunting, rashes, color, and weight gain to screen for sepsis, pneumonia, jaundice, and more. If required, staff can voice communicate through the cradle or call a local health worker to retrieve the baby for skilled care. CareCradle is issued to critical NICU discharged babies in govt SNCUs and returned at follow up. Financially, we’ll scale with Indian govt procurement for approximately 1000 high volume govt NICUs serving 0.5m/yr very high-risk babies. CareCradle prevents infant deaths in low-resource, hard-to-reach homes, especially for girls who often are not brought to clinics upon early danger signs. The innovation has a product and service business model integrating with political priorities. Within 18 months, we aim to build and demonstrate improved detection of deteriorating babies in a UNICEF run SNCU in Madhya Pradesh.