Case Study 2 – Embrace
Case Study 2 - Embrace
Areas of impact: Neonatal healthcare
Social enterprise location: India
Short description of activities:
20 million premature and low birth weight (LBW) babies are born every year in developing countries. In India alone, a third of all babies born are of low birth weight and 80 per cent of these births occur in rural areas. Three and a half million of these LBW babies die every year in India and those that do survive suffer life long health problems including heart disease and diabetes as well as low IQ.
Many of these problems could be prevented with the use of an incubator to regulate the baby's body temperature after birth. Traditional incubators cost thousands of pounds and can only be found in hospitals, which are inaccessible to families in rural communities in developing countries.
Embrace have developed a $25 incubator, which does not need a power source, is portable and can be used in healthcare centres and homes in any geographical location.
The design is a sleeping bag made using a 'phase change' material to regulate the body temperature of premature or LBW babies at 37C. The sleeping bag is heated up simply by pouring hot water into a heating unit within 10 to15 minutes the ideal temperature for the child's survival is obtained and the baby is simply placed inside. The bag will stay warm for over four hours and can simply be reheated after this time. The sleeping bag is also easy to sterilize so can be used by different babies.
Why it’s a social design:
Embrace came out of the Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability class at Stamford University, a team of people from a variety of disciplines including business, engineering, product design, medical device consulting as well as graduates with experience in non-profit health care. Their board of advisors includes experts in neonatal care, public health policy, health care in the developing world and product design.
Embrace is motivated by seeking a solution to neonatal death and injury and not by profit. The product only costs $25 and the company's website asks for donations to be sustainable; they are trying to raise $1million over the next four years to make their product available worldwide.
What is its design aspect?
Embrace combines the use of innovative phase changing material (PCM) with knowledge of neonatal care. This user-centred social design understands context of use in both fiscal and physical terms. The designers hope the product will put an end to the current unsafe practices of caring for LBW babies including placing them under light bulbs or tying hot water bottles to their bodies.
Main actors and interactions (including stakeholders, networks, services and revenue streams):
The project drew upon the skills and experiences of multiple disciplines and stakeholders including the following board of advisors:
- John Hennessy, President of Stanford University; a pioneer in computer architecture
- Dr Paul Wise, Professor of Child Health and Society, Stanford Medical School; he has worked to improve healthcare practices and policies in developing countries
- Colleen Cotter, human factors specialist for the zero20 practice at IDEO; her career has focused on projects related to kids and wellness as well as social impact
- James M. Patell, Herbert Hoover Professor of Public and Private Management; within the design school he co-teaches Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability
Social Impact:
- One of the UN Millennium Development Goals is to reduce infant mortality by two thirds by 2015; Embrace hope to use their innovative new technology to save children and help governments to reach these targets
Economic Impact:
- Costing just $25 (traditional incubators cost $20,000), it makes neonatal care cheaper and more accessible to all
Environmental Impact:
- The sleeping bag uses an innovative new material combined with a pouch heated with hot water; it can be reheated every four hours
- It is easily sterilised and can therefore be reused many times
- Although the product is cheap, it is not disposable
Links:
www.embraceglobal.org
Echoing Green
American Express Members Project
Piramal Prize for Innovations that Democratize Healthcare
Nu Venture Challenge
Babson Entrepreneurship and Innovation