Baby Incubator Design Project

[Baby Incubator]

Hey everybody,

I have a case in which you might be able to help me out a little bit.

I'll try to keep it relatively short. Together with 5 fellow students I am trying to solve a problem existing in rural hospitals in Lampang (Thailand).
The problem there is that they don't have enough money to purchase a proper system to support premature and Ill baby's. The actually use beanbags that are heated in the microwave.
Every year lot's of baby's die because of this lack of resources.

Our team wants to come up with a solution for this problem. This might be a really cheap and accessible version of our advanced incubators, but it could also be something totally new, or maybe even some sort of service.

The reason I post this message on the forum is to increase the amount of people that are thinking with me to get closer to the solution.

Maybe some of you have useful ideas, or knowledge you want to share with us.
We are currently looking for cheap ways to create some kind of enclosure/embracement that can create, maintain and monitor a constant temperature, and humidity.
Thinking about using electrical blankets or something similar. Maybe we can monitor by connecting patches to the baby's body and using Ipad's for displaying the temperature, hart rhythm etc. of the baby.

We just started working on the project last Thursday so we are nowhere yet. It is a actual problem however, and if we as a team succeed to come up with a good solution within three months, we have a chance of going to Thailand to implement the novelty.

If people are interested in this project, I would be glad to post about the progress and upcoming questions once in a while, and maybe receive some input from your side.

Looking forward to your replies.

Thanks!

Pieter Doevendans

[JAlberts]

Have you investigated current incubator designs to establish their critical operating components and key performance criteria? If not, I would recommend you search for information for the existing equipment. Many times the cost of our medical equipment is more a factor of the cost of the approval processes we in the developed nations demand to insure safety rather than a result of the basic design requirements and elements requred for the equipment's primary function. Also, if you want see an extreme case of alternative incubator designs then also search for those units used by farmers and naturalist for eggs and infant animals and birds. This way you will learn the two opposite extremes of the designs and be more able to see where cross integation might lead you in your project.

[Baby Incubator]

Hey JAlberts,

Thanks for your reply. I am currently looking at different existing systems. First thing I did before I even got the case, was going to hospital to investigate the advanced system's we use nowadays.
It's a good idea to look at farming practices. I will definitely do that to.

Thanks again!