Philips has partnered with SA-based non-profit organisation, PowerFree Education Technology (PET), to further develop, test and commercialise a device aimed at addressing the high rates of preventable infant mortality across Africa.
The power-independent clinical device, the Wind-up Doppler Ultrasound Fetal Heart Rate Monitor, is used to easily and accurately monitor the fetal heart rate while the mother is in labour.
According to Maarten van Herpen, head of the Philips Africa Innovation Hub, in order to address the issue of child mortality due to complications during birth, the collaboration aims to get the device into the hands of midwives and nurses working in low-resource settings in Africa.
She notes the first prototype of the Wind-up Fetal Doppler is subject to clinical testing and regulatory approval, before release for general usage. However, she says if everything goes according to plan, Philips hopes to release the product during the course of 2015.
"The original device developed by our partner PET has been market-tested in Uganda; where 60% more cases of abnormal foetal heart rate were detected in labour, compared to the standard Pinard-stethoscope," she says.
"Current users are very happy with the device; we are starting up the process to gather more user feedback from MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders). We have value engineered the device to drive the price down."
Van Herpen says to date the device has been sold in large quantities to MSF and recently also to an educational institution on tropical medicine in Liverpool, UK. "We believe there are many customers who would want to pay for this, such as governments, primary care facilities and secondary hospitals, but also NGOs and multi-lateral organisations."
The design is being optimised to make the product as affordable as possible. "We want the price of the product to be lower than the design by PET, but exact pricing is currently unknown," notes Van Herpen.
The ruggedness and power independence will have a positive impact on the total cost of ownership for the end-user compared to conventional portable Doppler devices, she points out.
Dr Francois Bonnici, director of PET and director of the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation at the University of Cape Town, says PET chose to work with Philips because of a strong alignment on the mission to improve people's lives with meaningful innovation.
The Wind-up Fetal Doppler has been specifically designed to be easy to use. PET has also developed dedicated training materials to educate the health workers on how to use the device.
Share