Main problem
Rural health facilities of Nepal lack proper neonatal health equipment and trained personnel that can operate them on a daily basis. Data shows that out of 1000 live births in Nepal, 29 do not make it through the first few months. A factor that contributes to this high infant mortality rate is hypothermia, a condition in which an infant loses its body’s heat rapidly. Traditional methods like electric heaters, heat from filament bulbs and burning coals pose significant threat to the child since basic hygiene, risk of electrical shock and polluted air remain unnoticed in efforts to save the baby's life in a limited resource setting. A majority of babies who do not receive the necessary care during the neonatal period may develop short to long-term health problems like asthma, pneumonia and other diseases.
Team Members
Er. Mahip KC
Product Development Engineer
Sanjay Bahadur Singh
Biomedical Engineer
Swastika Parajuli
Public Health Professional
Er. Sandip Gautam
Mechanical Engineer
Sunil Baniya
Product Ideator
Er. Suraj Karki
System Design Engineer
Deepak Chand
Embedded System Engineer
Nischal Pokharel
Mechanical Engineer
Bisek Chaudhary
Mechanical Technician
Sameer Aryal
Mechanical Designer
Dustynep
DIgital Media Officer
Rabindra Acharya
Mechanical Engineer
Solution
To solve this problem plaguing our nation, especially the rural areas where expensive solutions are infeasible and sometimes even inaccessible, we devised the following solutions:
- Develop locally, an infant radiant warmer in Nepal with minimal design while integrating the most important features at a lower cost.
- Provide proper and thorough orientation, demonstration to the end-users on how to use the radiant warmers to treat hypothermic babies on a regular basis.
- Identify and bridge the gap between the end-users and the manufacturers to enable a properly functioning and safe device round the clock.
