AWARD YEAR
2015
CATEGORY
Body
GOALS
Good Health & Well-being
KEYWORDS
health, children, Wellbeing
COUNTRY
Norway
DESIGNED BY
VoluSense, HotSwap, Designit
WEBSITE
http://www.volusense.com/Default.aspx#
VoluSense
The first ever wrap around vest evaluating lung function of babies in neonatal care.
Neonatal Respiratory Distress Syndrome (RDS) affects a large proportion of babies and accessing infant lung function has, until now, been an invasive procedure.
VoluSense is a tidal breathing assessment system, which evaluates volume changes in a baby’s lungs. The system is composed of a vest, as opposed to the usual facemask, and an electromagnetic sensor, which records a newborn’s breathing. The vest is worn around the chest and waist with coils integrated into the garment, which track changes in breathing patterns. The vest is a one-time-use piece made of soft elastic and hypoallergenic material – a stark contrast to the heavy or intrusive monitoring methods of the past.
Using VoluSense takes about 5 to 10 minutes, making the experience for the baby, as well as the parents as stress-free as possible. The benefit of this is to record natural breathing patterns giving accurate real-time results on the bedside monitor.