Embrace, a company started by Stanford students from the Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability class, is commercializing an innovative $25 incubator for premature infants in developing countries. In developing nations, where at least 20 million low-birth-weight babies are born every year, incubators are important lifesaving devices. The problem? They typically cost $20,000, plus electricity. One of the biggest problems these babies face is hypothermia: they are not able to regulate their own body temperature, and therefore cannot stay warm. In fact, room temperature for these small infants feels freezing cold. 4 million babies die within their first month of life. Those that do survive often develop life-long health problems such as early onset of diabetes, heart disease, and low IQ.
Embrace created a “sleeping bag” designed with a removable heating element. It’s a little like the hand-warmers used by campers. The team used phase-change material (PCM), a waxy substance that, as it cools from melted liquid to solid, maintains the desired temperature of 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 F) for four hours. The PCM is enclosed in a plastic pouch. To reheat it, mothers place the pouch beneath a metal flask filled with hot water, often a readily available energy source. The concept’s simplicity extends to all its parts. To ensure that it can be repaired locally, the bag fastens with buttons, rather than zippers or Velcro. The Embrace team chose a waterproof vinyl material for the interior and a nylon exterior, both easily washable. Embrace hopes to work with neonatal care organizations, and believes that 15 million children can benefit from its innovation within 10 years.
We also recommend watching: "Entrepreneur Story: Quenching Thirst with Philantrophy" and "Matternet: Flying Delivery System For The Developing World".
The Embrace incubator was a concept developed by a class called Entrepreneurial Design For Extreme Affordability. It uses Phase Change Material in a sleeping bag design to maintain temperature inside the incubator entirely without electricity, making it well-suited to rural areas. The device can periodically be supplied heat with hot water.At the Echoing Green competition in 2008, the fellowship award was won by the Embrace development team. Embrace won the 2007-2008 Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students Social E-Challenge competition grand prize.
Embrace: Saving Premature Babies with Low-Tech