Conference proceeding explores the development of Incuvia, our low-cost collapsible portable baby incubator for remote low-resourced settings

The majority of neonatal mortality occurs in developing and under-resourced regions and is almost always preventable with modern healthcare. Low-resourced settings are often not equipped to handle intensive care of neonates, and there is a lack of point-of-care devices for treatment in rural communities. Infant incubators reduce neonatal mortality by supporting thermal homeostasis, thus are ubiquitous in healthcare facilities of developed nations. However, incubators are hard to come across in low-resource settings due to the expensiveness and lack of portability. To address these challenges, we present the novel design concept of a collapsible infant incubator for low-resource settings, resulting from several prototype iterations in consultation with rural healthcare workers and community members in the Philippines. Our latest prototype is capable of thermoregulation and quick point-of-care deployment at an affordable cost. In particular, we focus on how the results of the needs assessment were embedded into an innovative collapsible product design specification.

Full proceedings will be made available after the conference.