Subproject for Dr. Xu

As part of Goal 3's focus on treatment and prevention of acute illness, investments are needed to develop innovations in newborn care. Specifically, we hope to develop newborn care technologies that are low cost, operator independent, and highly efficient. Within this body of work, we are prioritizing multiparameter devices that either 1) incorporate known risk factors into an algorithm, to be used as a spot-check device identifying newborns who require referral or additional attention or 2) are used as a post-discharge wearable for the newborn, to be evaluated by a visiting community healthcare worker. A major health system challenge in LMICs is that there are not enough trained healthcare workers to monitor and treat high-risk newborns in the NICU setting. There are a variety of technologies deployed in high-income countries to continuously monitor a variety of vital signs for the vulnerable newborn population. One specific technology of interest is being developed by Northwestern University and involves non-invasive, adhesive sensors that are placed on the newborn body. There are two different sensors currently being refined: one sensor contains Bluetooth technology with a built-in battery, estimated to cost ~$30, whereas the other is battery-free, ultra-thin and is estimated to cost ~$3. Both of these sensors can currently measure ECG, HR, SpO2, and temperature, and these monitoring of these parameters is supported by customized software. We propose partnering with Northwestern with the main goal of continuing development of these two sensors for future prototype testing and continued design iteration in a low-resource setting. Another major health system challenge in LMICs is that there is a lack of trained healthcare workers to monitor and treat laboring women in the intra-partum setting. Furthermore, there is a lack of predictive analytics capable of predicting for maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality that leverages collected data. There are a variety of technologies deployed in high-income countries to continuously monitor a variety of vital signs for laboring women. One specific technology of interest is being developed by Northwestern University and involves non-invasive, adhesive sensors that are placed on the abdomen of laboring women. These battery-powered patches can collectively measure maternal ECG, uterine EMG, maternal SpO2, maternal skin temperature, and a surrogate marker for maternal blood pressure (pulse arrival time). We propose partnering with Northwestern with the main goal of continuing development of these sensors to collect data that may be useful for future machine learning and predictive analytics for laboring women in a low-resource setting.