Utopian Design Saving New Life

There are countless objects we take for granted when living in a first world country. Most of us tend to not think about our abundance of clean water, relative ease in finding food, our ability to educate ourselves with books or the internet, and other everyday norms that seem to have been apart of our lives since as early as we can remember. Another thing we take for granted are certain types of basic medical technology that allows us to survive shortly after being born. Incubators are used in all children's and general hospitals in order to ensure the survival of preterm children. Although the technology isn't cheap, it is a standard in hospitals in the United States and other first world countries. However, some countries inhabitants do not have access to such technology, and therefore face many risks when their children are born preterm. In countries that have limited health care, they may have Neonatal incubators that have been donated at one point in time, but eventually broke down and had no one with the replacement parts or expertise to fix them. This creates a problem that does not help alleviate the number of 1.8 million preterm babies that die each year from simply a lack of warmth and protection until they grow strong enough body fat and the metabolic state to stay warm.

(Image from nytimes.com)

As with every problem, there is someone (likely a designer of some kind) working to solve it. In this case, that someone is Design That Matters. The company has created the NeoNurture Car Parts Incubator. This incubator is designed specifically for regions of the world that have limited access to the resources necessary to fix complex medical equipment. How do they do this? By building it with parts of something that at least one person in almost in any region of the world can fix: a car. The NeoNurture implements a simple design that utilizes car headlights, horns, fans, batteries, and signal lights to create a simple and affordable incubator that can save lives. Headlights are used to create heat, fans are used to circulate and filter air, turn signals and door chime sounds are used to alert a nurse of vital signs, and car or motorcycle batteries are used to protect the device in movement or a power outage. With all of these simple parts, you may think that the design looks more like a steel shell rather than a piece of medical equipment, right?

Well the other aspect of the NeoNatal Incubator is that it looks, and feels good. The company wished to create an incubator that not only worked, but would also be comfortable for any baby no matter what region in the world they are from. The look of the incubator is much more pleasant than that of  standard pieces of medical technology. It shares the same clean aesthetic as most medical technology, yet it's also pleasant to look at. The designers also considered something that is lacking on most incubators designed today: mobility. The NeoNatal has two large bicycle type wheels that facilitate movement when in regions that may not have flawlessly smooth hospital floors.

(Image from nytimes.com)

The NeoNatal was a collaboration between Design that Matters, students and teacher's at MIT, Rhode Island School of Design, The University of Arizona, Stanford University, and recieved input from the well known IDEO firm. This collaboration has worked together to engineer something that is a true example of utopian design. An affordable, functional version of a normally expensive and complex medical device is something that is desired world wide. This team of designers has risen to the challenge of creating something that will save lives. Who knows? Maybe someday, one of those lives will  return the favor.