What about having smart device that monitors the health of the new born at a low cost and with increased ease? That is called NeMo Care, a Hyderabad-based health care start-up, has unveiled at a conference recently on the campus of Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH).
This is part of Centre for Health Care Entrepreneurship (CfHCE), an initiative taken by the IITH to promote innovations in the health care systems.
Christened as NeMo Foot Band, it is wearable for the new born that addresses the need for a low-cost and highly accurate for the detection of - Apnea and Hypothermia - two of the most life-threatening conditions that the newborns face.
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The device - in the size of a ₹ 10 coin and functions wireless - continuously monitors the necessary vital parameters of the new born and is connected to a central system that relays it to the nursing station. This will allow nurses on duty to monitor the health condition of the new born babies and make timely intervention based on the urgency and aid in distress management.
The doctors and other important functionaries in the hospital can get the data, details and alerts on their smart phones so that they also intervene and give required suggestions to the staff present at the hospital.
“We worked for six months closely with doctors and medical staff to know about requirements to develop this device. This will monitor vital parameters like – oxygenation, heart rate, respiration rate, temperature, body position and distress – This will help doctors to intervene and arrest the untimely deaths of infants,” said Pratyusha Pareddy and Manoj Shanker, who designed and developed the device.
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They said that about 4 lakh children were dying due to such type of health problems which can be arrested with the timely intervention. Pratyusha said that this will be most useful in rural areas where the health care is not much available.
Stating that the present monitors being established at the hospitals cost anywhere between ₹ 1.5 lakh to ₹ 2 lakh, the smart baby monitor costs only ₹ 20,000 and it may be available in the market by 2019.