Two students at Western Michigan University developed a device that helps newborn babies who have trouble breathing. When an infant is struggling to breathe, they are often put in a special type of ventilator called a 'Continuous Positive Airway Pressure' (CARP). However, in many countries around the world, this life-saving machine is nothing more than a simple tube submerged in a pool of water.
The students came up with a new design for an inexpensive baby ventilator, which they call the 'Neovent.' This revolutionary new device builds on the original CARP design, by providing multiple pressure points instead of just one. The Neovent features a basket that collects bubbles, rises and then unseals various holes at different depths. When the basket reaches the top of the device, it falls again and the process continues to repeat itself. The cycle mimics the effect of breathing in and out, which helps babies who have trouble breathing by allowing their lungs to inflate and then deflate.
While the device is still in the prototype stage, the students hope to be producing the life-saving machine by next summer.
What's Driving This Trend
- Inexpensive Baby Ventilators
- The development of innovative devices such as Neovent may advance the miniaturization and affordability of baby ventilators.
- Multiple Pressure Points Ventilation
- Opportunities arise for companies to upgrade current devices by adopting a Neovent-like design with multiple pressure points to provide an optimized respiratory support to fragile babies.
- Affordable Medical Devices
- The increasing demand for affordable medical devices implies the emergence of opportunities for players that specialize in designing cost-effective and accessible technologies for developing countries.
Who This Affects Most
- Medical Devices
- The medical device industry has the potential to revolutionize neonatal healthcare by investing in the research and development of affordable and easy-to-use devices for fragile babies.
- Global Health
- The global health industry may benefit from the development of low-cost devices such as Neovent, which can provide essential respiratory support to premature newborns in developing countries.
- Biomedical Engineering
- The biomedical engineering field can explore the design of innovative and more efficient devices, inspired by the Neovent's original solution to respiratory support for infants.
