Gates Foundation backs JHU team developing sensors to monitor newborns’ health

A team from Johns Hopkins is getting some new support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for its work to help mothers in developing countries monitor the health of their newborn children.
A group spanning biomedical engineers, technologists and health experts is developing a solution called NeMo. Short for Neonatal Monitoring, the system includes low-cost sensors and an app that are designed to spot health issues in a baby’s first week.
The project was among 51 winners of in grant funding from the Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges initiative. The team receives an initial $100,000, and could receive up to $1 million if it hits milestones.
Birthed from JHU’s Center for Biomedical Engineering and Design in Baltimore, graduate program director Soumyadipta Acharya and more than a dozen other grad students and faculty have traveled to rural villages in Bangladesh, Kenya and Uganda for research and testing, according to JHU.
The solution is looking to curb an alarming stat: 75 percent of the newborns who die annually pass away in the first week.

“Mothers and other family members often fail to recognize the early signs of a serious illness in time,” Acharya said in a statement. “But if you see the signs of illness early enough, the child could be referred to a district hospital for prompt treatment.”

NeMo includes a small belt that is fastened across the abdomen. It’s equipped with a paper sensor strip that can deliver info about temperature and breathing through a cell phone, which is also provided. A mother also answers further yes-or-no questions through the app. A test that shows a potential issue will be referred directly to a health worker.

Initial testing was completed in Uganda and at JHU’s neonatal intensive care unit. The grant will support with further development.