CONCEPT

The project is a low-cost and open-hardware phototherapy device, which is portable, easy to assemble and perfect size to be packaged, that intends to help poor families whose newborns with jaundice to receive the treatment. The device uses state-of-art tools like a web-site and an application to provide instant access to a doctor while the baby receives the treatment besides his parents. The parents at the same time can use the device to monitor the healthy condition of their baby, and contact with doctors for resolving any potential issue.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Suddenly infant death syndrome is one of the main causes of neonatal mortality in India and which is mainly due to lack of access to basic healthcare infrastructure and also non availability of specialist consultation or care at the right time at rural health care centers or hospitals.

DEVELOPMENT

Our intended goal is to make Phototherapy available to almost every parent and with the unity of software-hardware-service, give the ability countries with rural areas or countries that are not in the rich zone with big population in the lower-middle class, to have a solution in this problem. This project aims to diminish as far as possible strong issues. Major factors as:

•    Accessibility (NGOs will provide them to every hospital)

•    Portability (small size, easy to package and can be placed on any surface from floor to bed/cradle)

•    Low-cost (comparing to existing treatments the cost is less than 1/10 of them) 

•    Communication (between doctor and parents, easy and instant contact for advice of potential issues)

•    Easy-assemble (consists of only few pieces, quicker and easier to assemble it)

•    Power-source (can use car battery which is very easy to be find anywhere from shops to destroyed-cars)

STORYBOARD

The MAYA Phototherapy is mainly designed for neonatal jaundice infants in rural area, parents can reserve MAYA services from NGOs, hospitals, or online website. After reservation, parents will receive the phototherapy device in one portable package. After unpacking and assembling the device, the treatment can be started immediately. The device is placed above the baby, so blue light will create a light field around the baby and start phototherapy. Parents can control and monitor the device by using the touch screen which is installed on the device or the MAYA App. Doctor can also monitor the progress of treatment, and in case of emergency can contact the family. Upon the completion of the treatment, the device can be packed and send to another family.

DESIGN FEATURES

1. Control Panel

For parents in rural area which usually could not afford the smart devices, we designed the control panel with user friendly interface for controling, monitoring, and communication. It’s composed of RePhone chip (low-cost), so that parents could use it to send SMS, emergency call, and health record of their baby to doctors without any smart devices or Internet.

2. LED Bluelight Strips

The wavelength of LED Strips is controlled in 420-480 nm, so that cause precisely transformation of the trans bilirubin to cis bilirubin for curing the jaundice infants.

3. Reflective Material

Reflective surfaces for better coverage of blue light phototherapy.

MAYA APP

With MAYA App, you can remote control your MAYA phototherapy device, detect the bilirubin level of your baby with color card, view health records, and also ask for advices from doctors or online community. Besides, you can search the nearby Maya phototherapy devices for rental service from NGOs or hospitals.

PROTOTYPING

This project was in collaboration with WeMake (the maker space in Milan) and get exhibited at Maker Faire 2016 in Rome. For ensuring this product is practically easy to assemble, portable and even could be made at home by low-cost materials (this project is open hardware & software), we tried many different materials, shapes, and origami to test our ideas. Besides, we coded with RePhone chip (Arduino based) and used Sketch App for building the interface and the App prototype.