Development of Radiant Warmer Thermal Monitoring System to Improve Neonatal Patient Safety

Abstract

Temperature measurement is a vital part of daily newborn care. In temperature measurement, accurate measurements must be taken to detect deviations from expected values for the incubator and radiant heater function. Monitoring the temperature is keeping the baby in a thermoneutral environmental zone. The study tested body surface temperature under various clinical conditions using an affordable infrared thermography imaging technique. Temperature distributions are displayed as real-time videos and analyzed to evaluate average skin temperatures. This study demonstrates the design and implementation of a virtual temperature sensing application that can help neonatologists provide additional security to a newborn's skin temperature. The influence of different environmental conditions inside the radiant heater with respect to the surface temperature has been verified.