Malav Sanghavi, an Indian student studying in London designed a low cost prototype of a baby incubator that could help save millions of lives, especially in a country like India.
This incubator made out of cardboard called a BabyLifeBox .
Malav is currently pursuing Innovation Design Engineering (IDE), a Master’s dual degree course at the Imperial College London and Royal College of Art.
What is a BabyLifeBox?
It is a low-cost baby incubator that provides basic neonatal care at grassroots-level. The initial design meets the basic requirements of a neonatal incubator while using the lowest cost materials available, mostly cardboard, perspex and a simple heater.
Why it matters?
” India has highest number of babies dying within the first 24 hours of their birth in the world, more than 300,000 a year. According to our initial research, we found that India’s healthcare service has facilities to deal with a standard birth at sub-centres, primary health centres and community health centres but it lacks infrastructure for neonatal care of premature and underweight infants,” explained Sanghavi.
What made him invent the device?
Malav Sanghavi first conceived the idea when his cousin’s daughter had to be kept alive in an incubator. While she had access to all the facilities, what got him thinking was the rest of the infants who are born in remote villages across India.
He is now looking forward to get funding for the expansion of his team and bring more experts to develop the prototypes and start clinical trials.
(With inputs from PTI)