Towards a prototype of a low-priced domestic incubator with telemetry system for premature Babies in Lima, Peru

Abstract

Complications due to preterm birth are the main factors of death in the group of children with five years of age or less. Hence, a thorough care for these babies is needed especially during the first weeks or months after birth. Because in Peru not too many families can afford to rent or buy a incubator, this work puts forward the design and construction of a low-priced domestic incubator with telemetry system. The most important parameters to monitor are considered to be: the temperature and the humidity inside of the incubator and the heart pulse of the baby. To maintain the levels of temperature and humidity according to medical standards, a software was developed in an Arduino Uno. In order that the parents monitor the aforementioned parameters not necessarily being in the same room where the incubator is, a bluetooth module was used with the Arduino Uno to transmit the data to an app installed in a mobile phone. The first tests have shown that the humidity and temperature levels within the incubator are maintained as desired, also the the heart pulse is the expected one. However, there is still some work to do in regard to the upper limits of the humidity and temperature levels, which will be implemented as the next step of the project. It is expected that this incubator will serve Peruvian families, specially those living at the edge of poverty, who do not have the possibility of affording an expensive incubator at home or paying for these services at hospitals, for their premature babies.