In India, 8 million children are born prematurely every year. Prematurity is also the leading cause of infant deaths in the country. Since “preemies” are underweight, one of the biggest risks they face is hypothermia.
Bengaluru based medical technology startup Bempu comes in the aid of saving these preemies. Bembu’s founder Ratul Narain, an engineer from Stanford University, has come up with BEMPU TempWatch, a safe and simple device for detecting neonatal hypothermia.
Hypothermia is a condition in which the body temperature of infant babies goes down from the normal body temperature. TempWatch continuously monitors a newborn for signs of hypothermia. If hypothermic for 5 minutes, the device sounds an alarm and blinks an orange light to alert the caretaker to warm the infant. Once warm, the device returns to blinking a blue light every 30 seconds implying normothermia.
Launched in 2013, Bempu also promotes Kangaroo care, a method of caring for premature babies in which, the infants are held skin-to-skin by their parents for them to receive body heat. Bempu also extends hospital care at home.
The biggest advantage of the device is its ease of use. The device cost Rs 2,990. TempWatches are easily available at hospital pharmacies, Amazon or can directly order from the official website.
Over 12,000+ newborns in 26 countries have been protected by using the BEMPU Temp Watch. The BEMPU TempWatch was featured on TIME Magazine as one of the Top 25 Inventions of 2017 and it has also won awards from the Gates Foundation and USAID.
