Product/Service Development

Craig Goergen, Kirk Foster and George Wodicka from Purdue University together with David Reuter from Seattle Children's Hospital in the U.S. will develop a wearable sensor that can automatically measure blood pressure and body position, and transmit the results to a medical unit to identify pregnant women at risk of developing preeclampsia in remote, low-resource settings.

Patricia Connolly of the University of Strathclyde and colleagues in the United Kingdom will develop a low-cost, wearable skin patch that can continuously monitor metabolite levels in newborns without the need for blood sampling, and can alert mothers and health workers to potential problems via mobile phone. Changes in metabolites such as those of hemoglobin and bilirubin are used to assess many aspects of newborn health, but current methods require invasive blood sampling and access to laboratory analysis, which is often unavailable in low-resource settings.

Arun Agarwal of Janitri Innovations Private Ltd in India will test a low-cost, wearable device that monitors fetal heart rate and uterine contractions during labor and automatically alerts health workers when the fetus is deprived of oxygen, which is a major cause of neonatal death in India. Existing methods are expensive and require skilled medical professionals to operate them and analyze the results. This means they are not used during the majority of births in India.

James Njeru of the Field Epidemiology Society of Kenya in Kenya will develop a simple electronic system using basic phone technology that registers the birth and immunizations of all children in Kenya, and can send vaccination reminders. At present, childhood vaccinations are often missed or given late in Kenya, which causes substantial health problems. Electronically recording all births would enable vaccinations to be better tracked and reminders to be sent on time to parents, but has been problematic because internet and computer access is often limited.

Bhushan Toley of the Indian Institute of Science in India will develop a device that protects DNA specimens from destruction during transport to laboratories for diagnosis of infectious diseases. Sputum, urine, and blood contain the DNA of infectious agents that can be used to diagnose diseases to aid treatment and help prevent spread. Diagnosis is generally performed in specialized laboratories, but the DNA can be damaged during transport from remote locations due to the length of time it takes or exposure to high temperature.

Fassika Fikre Hailemeskel of Maisha Technologies PLC in Ethiopia will build and field-test their drone for the rapid delivery of blood from blood banks to health facilities across Ethiopia. Almost 50% of maternal deaths in Ethiopia are caused by hemorrhage. Although there are 24 regional blood banks, difficult terrain and limited infrastructure on the ground mean that delivery to certain areas is almost impossible. A drone would bypass these obstacles.

Prem Mony of St John's Research Institute in India along with the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, will develop a temperature sensor to be worn by caregivers during kangaroo mother care of infants up to four weeks old combined with a mobile device to transmit data for analysis and real-time feedback. Kangaroo mother care involves continuous skin-to-skin contact with the mother to keep the infant warm, and is particularly valuable for protecting preterm infants. However, how long and how often it is actually used in the home, and thus its value, has been difficult to quantify.

Jim Duggan of the National University of Ireland, Galway, in Ireland will develop a simulator for public health supply chains in low- to middle-income countries that incorporates the stakeholders and steps needed to provide health care products from the manufacturer to the individual under different conditions, to optimize their performance and ultimately improve health. A key challenge is to ensure that the right medicines are available when needed, particularly when demand is high, for example during epidemics.

Diana Negoescu of the University of Minnesota in the U.S. will ensure routine vaccinations are given to infants during the first year of life in resource-limited settings by providing free, shared transportation to medical centers, and text message reminders. In low-resource countries, public transportation, if available, is often unreliable and infrequent. However, newborns require regular, on-time vaccinations to prevent a variety of potentially deadly diseases.

Conor Walsh of Harvard University and Elisabeth Salisbury of the University of Massachusetts Medical School in the U.S. will develop a low-cost, wearable, monitoring device to improve kangaroo mother care for newborns in remote settings. Kangaroo mother care is an established childcare method that is particularly valuable for preterm infants. It uses clothing to attach the baby to the caregiver, thereby ensuring continuous skin-to-skin contact to provide warmth. However, too much or too little heat can also be dangerous, but there is currently no way to monitor that.