Wireless Skin Sensors For Newborns Will Let Parents Cuddle Fragile Babies

the_newsbeagle writes: In newborn intensive care units (NICUs) today, tiny fragile babies lie in incubators, wired to a variety of monitors that track their vital signs. This mess of wires makes it complicated for nurses to pick up the babies for routine tasks like diaper changes, and makes it hard for new parents to pick up their infants for cuddling. Skin-to-skin contact between parents and infants has been proven not only to help with bonding, but also to have a host of medical benefits for the infants, so the wires that tether babies to their beds are a real problem. At Northwestern University, an electrical engineer who works on flexible, stretchable electronics teamed up with a pediatric dermatologist to invent a solution. They devised a system of stick-on wireless biosensors (with a gentle adhesive that's safe even for thin preemie skin) that actually provide more information than today's standard setup. The system "is composed of two sensors, one that sticks to the chest to record electrocardiograms (providing heart rate), another that sticks to the foot to record photoplethysmograms (measuring blood oxygenation) and skin temperature," reports IEEE Spectrum. "The foot sensor required the engineering team to create software that could compensate for movement artifacts in the data. Time-syncing these two sensors also provides a continuous measurement of blood pressure; the system knows when the heart pumps out a pulse of blood and when it arrives at the foot, and that time measurement correlates well with blood pressure."

"The sensors use near-field communication (NFC) to connect to a module that can be attached to the baby's bed, and which both receives the data and sends wireless power to the sensors," the report adds. "That module transmits the data via bluetooth to a mobile phone or tablet."

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[Mr. Dollar Ton]

I heartily agree.

Actually, it would be even better if such babies are found out early and the pregnant women are then mandated to abort them. The family should then be made to adopt a healthy baby of a different race that has been orphaned or given up by the parents. This will not only create more happy families, but significantly lower the risk of inbreeding even when the foster parents later decide to have unprotected sex with the adopted children.

A win-win situation for everyone.

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[Mr. Dollar Ton]

You are too squirmish. Be brave, be strong, there's plenty of other people's children to go around.

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[kenai_alpenglow]

I.e., "Infanticide".

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[Sooner Boomer]

We are really disrupting by saving babies that have defects that wouldn't have survived on their own.

Well, that's one way to look at it. What else should we stop? Patent ductus arteriosis is a common defect where the hole normal between the chambers in a fetus' heart never closes up (usually does this several weeks before birth). A fairly straightforward open heart procedure fixes the problem. Should we stop doing this, too? Where do we draw the line? What criteria? Money? Class? At the other end of life - do we use euthanasia on the elderly that no longer contribute? Just asking question

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[kulaga]

Not all preemie's are born to drug addicted mothers or are the result of congenital birth defects. Many scientists theorize bacterial infections or even environmental pollutants are contributing to the rise in premature births. Speaking as a parent who did everything right (pre-natal care, vitamins, genetic screening, healthy lifestyle) and had a daughter born 15 weeks early who spent 81 days in the ICU, this invention is amazing. Would also be beneficial for elderly patients with very fragile skin.

She's no

Re: ALL human babies are premature!

[bn-7bc]

Well thst is technicaly correct, but I think theay mean premarure babies in a human context as in born earlier thsn normsl for humans,.Well Iâ(TM)m neither a MD or a linquist so I might be wrong.

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[TheCowSaysMoo]

Let me be clear: You are wrong. You are ignorant on this subject. Please refrain from posting about things you know less than zero about in the future.

My 6-year-old kid was born preemie because... well, if you can *definitively* explain what causes preeclampsia, then you can make a lot of money (they don't call it the "disease of theories" for nothing). My kid was born 6 weeks early and weighed about 3-1/2 pounds. Now, my kid is perfectly healthy and normal with zero signs of being a preemie. If I never tol

What newborn is not fragile?

[gurps_npc]

And who wants to tell their parents, that hey, do what you want, your newborn can take it, he's tough

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[rv6502]

Spartans.