Scientists Build Neonatal Incubator From Car Parts 211
Peace Corps Online writes "The NYTimes ran a story this week about a group of scientists who have built a neonatal incubator out of automobile parts, including a pair of headlights as a heat source, a car door alarm to signal emergencies, and an auto air filter and fan to provide climate control. The creators of the car-parts incubator say that an incubator found in any neonatal intensive care unit in the US could cost around $40,000, but the incubator they have developed can be built for less than $1,000. One expert says as many as 1.8 million infants might be spared every year if they could spend just a week in the units, which help babies who are born early or at low birth weights regulate their body temperature until their organs fully develop. Experts say in developing countries where infant mortality is most common, high-tech machines donated by richer nations often conk out when the electricity fizzles or is restricted to conserve power. 'The future medical technologists in the developing world,' says Robert Malkin, director of Engineering World Health, 'are the current car mechanics, HVAC repairmen, bicycle shop repairmen. There is no other good source of technology-savvy individuals to take up the future of medical device repair and maintenance.'"
This is great! (Score:5, Interesting)
I love projects like this.. (Score:5, Interesting)
It's a reminder of what can be done with old-fashioned, low-tech stuff, and that breakthroughs can remain a down-and-dirty job and you don't need millions of dollars in funding to get one.
-1 misses the point? (Score:3, Interesting)
Um, the problem isn't a lack of repairmen Mr Malkin - it's a lack of electricity. A problem which this incubator doesn't fix. (No, the motorcycle battery isn't a fix. It's a backup. With no electricity, this incubator dies just as dead as a high tech one.)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Mission Criticality (Score:3, Interesting)
My daughter was born 7 weeks premature and spent 2 weeks in an incubator. As a side effect of spending so much time with her in the neonatal unit, I got to know what every switch and readout on her machine did. It was a very impressive piece of equipment designed to do one thing very well - keep a helpless human alive.
I would hazard a guess as to say that the insides of the machine are built with all sorts of hardware redundancy checks inside to ensure that its critical mission is carried out no matter what (I'm pretty sure it even had a UPS); which probably contributes somewhat to the high cost. That and the liability aspect inherent with any machine that keeps humans alive (from auto-respirators to space-suits).
I am fortunate enough to live in a country with a high standard of health care, and my daughter's stay in her expensive machine saved her life; however if a lower cost alternative that does the core functions of the expensive machines can be built for countries that are not as well off as we are, I am all for that. Expensive machines are also expensive to maintain, and if the TCO can be lowered to the point that poorer countries can operate them comfortably, that's got to be a benefit. It just goes to show that ingenuity knows no bounds.
I'm one of those repairmen... (Score:5, Interesting)
Since we're a not-for profit facility, there's a lot of incentive to do things in a cost effective manner, but at the same time, safety and well being of our residents is paramount. I've found myself having to repair all manner of medical equipment with little or no help from the manufacturer or seller. Things as simple as wheelchairs and walkers, to moderately complex like lift chairs and adjustable beds, to stuff like oxygen generators and emergency nurse-call equipment.
My employer would never be able to afford vendor reps to fix all this stuff, and so its left to myself and the rest of our small department. I'm the only one with a college education, and the only one from a high-tech background. The other guys have backgrounds in things like HVAC and carpentry. Simply put, the cost of health care equipment has far outstripped the ability for many facilities to support it and still provide affordable care. I was used to working with engineers, programmers, and big budgets until recently. The future of health care is not more tech, but taking the tech we have and making it cheaper and easier to maintain.
Re:Cool (Score:2, Interesting)
And you want the fun part of that... here in Japan. The Red Cross refuse donation other than... MONEY...
I'm in an old maternity clinic where they stopped deliveries as the owner is getting too old for this kind of 24h a day duty cr@p and so we have inpatient beds, newborn beds (all heavy duty japanese made, stuff that can survive a nuke). Brand new incubator and delivery table. ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING WAS REFUSED.
Seems that the japanese Red Cross suffer the common local problem known formerly only by politicians... You cant buy blow and prostitute with hardware donations...
So everything will be scrapped. Ain't life great.
Re:but (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, there are piles of car parts. (Score:5, Interesting)
From my experience, I would say yes, there are huge supplies of car parts lying about in developing nations.
Sure, only the small fraction of wealthy people can buy a car, even one heavily used, but what happens to the car when it breaks down beyond all repair? Does the non-existent trash-collection agency come to haul it off to the non-existent recycling facility or proper landfill? Nope, it sits right where it broke down - unless it broke down on the road, then it will be pushed aside just enough for normal traffic to resume. After that, everything that can be removed and hauled off without special equipment will be removed. Fans, engine, alternator, lights, pumps, belts, bits of plastic, body panels, I mean EVERYTHING. All this stuff ends up back at the mechanics, since they are the only people who could get any use out of it. Parts rarely match up exactly, but things get shoe-horned into place and made to work. In a few months or so, if a big flat-bed lorry comes along, what is left of the frame will be hauled off and turned into hand carts.
My single data point: In my small little remote town there are about 4 private cars (1 was a missionary doctor), a couple of government cars, as well as a bus-stop that ran 3 or 4 buses between the nearest towns. The mechanics at the bus stop stand had a large collection of spare parts. I have no idea how many of them were functioning or to what degree they did, but there were piles and piles of all different sorts of parts. I'm sure that with a bit of trial and error, enough working parts could have been pulled out of there to construct something equal to what was in TFA. Even more, there was a shop selling solar panels to charge car batteries for 12v lighting systems. While still quite expensive, a system like this could be set up to be totally independent of unreliable mains.
I know that what passed for the hospital in town did not have an incubator, or regular electricity to run one if they did. I never personally knew anyone there who lost a baby shortly after birth, but I heard of it happening often enough. Something like this could have saved some of those lives.
Now I'm feeling some kind of reverse home-sickness :(
Try teaching sexual education in schools.... (Score:1, Interesting)
Perhaps in somewhere with a strong islamic culture, like say Nigeria.
Let us know how that works out for you.
Re:but (Score:4, Interesting)
Technology has also vastly increased the Earth's ability to support human life
Unfortunately, it's much worse than that. First, so long as countries have a high birth rate, any technological advance only delays (and magnifies) the coming Malthusian disaster.
Secondly, many of the technological advances are temporary, especially in 3rd world countries, as they depend on cheap oil for mechanisation, fertiliser and pesticides.
The current economic situation has given oil a small reprieve, but the shit will hit the fan some time. It might start with some "unexpected" coincidence of multiple factors: a drought here, a war there, a crop disease somewhere else.
N.America, Australia, Brazil etc suffer a little with reduced exports. China bids high for what remains. Africa starves first, with places like Indonesia and even India not so far behind.
And guess what? There is nothing we can do to stop it, short of mass involuntary sterilisation. Even if all the Americans go vegetarian, banning grain-fed beef and ethanol fuel, it only delays the problem a short time.
Birth rates are the time bomb, and China is the only third world county to be doing anything about it. Mass-starvation (millions of deaths!) is _very_ fresh in their minds.
You can argue over all the variables of crop yields, oil reserves, etc, and it only changes when, not if, mass global food shortages will come.
Re:Economy of scale (Score:3, Interesting)
It is also about going into a third world junkyard and getting a local mechanic to fix the thing when it's broken. The article mentions how that many of the expensive neonatal incubators end up not being used because they either don't know how to operate it, or can't fix it five years later, when it breaks down.
I am curious how, in terms of effectiveness and quality this stacks up to what we have in America, but, in some places, they have no other options.
Nanny states and car confiscations... (Score:4, Interesting)
your car wasn't worth much anyway it might not be worth it.
There was an article in a paper a while back where the police mentioned they'd confiscated like seven cars from this one dude - he had basically a lifetime revokation for DUIs, and they'd take his car whenever they caught him(usuaully drunk). He'd just go out and buy another cheap sub-$500 car - cheaper than impound fees and such. Part of the article was, of course, outrage over why the guy wasn't in prison.
Personally, call me old fashioned but I think that car confiscations, even/especially for drug stuff should be handled through the courts. Confiscations, period, for that matter.