Design proposal for using a new incubator technique for BabyBloom Healthcare

Abstract

This thesis is the result of the master graduation project of Danielle Ceulemans titled: Design proposal for using a new incubator technique for BabyBloom Healthcare. The design proposal describes a new incubator technique to prevent extreme premature infants from cold stress during a medical procedure while having optimal access to the infant. Introduction Current closed incubators lack in the protection for environmental stimuli, such as light and noise, bonding with the parents and they do not provide an ergonomic working position for the medical staff. This was the motivation for BabyBloom Healthcare to develop the world´s first child-, parent- and nurse friendly incubator. BabyBloom Healthcare´s current focus is on closed incubators and not on radiant warmers or Hybrid Incubators, which is a combination of a closed incubator and radiant warmer in one. Project goal BabyBloom Healthcare wishes for a better understanding of the actual use of Hybrid Incubators in hospitals, in order to improve or extend their current product portfolio. The project goal is to evaluate the Hybrid Incubator and ultimately give BabyBloom Healthcare a design proposal for the possible implementation of the Hybrid Incubator technique. Analysis Qualitative user research at the neonatal intensive care unit revealed that the Hybrid Incubator is convenient for the medical staff during medical procedures due to the optimal access that is increased by the raised canopy and lowered side panels. However, the research showed that extreme premature infants tend to decrease in temperature during the medical procedure and the radiant warmer cannot maintain the infant´s body temperature. Premature infants have a hard time controlling their body temperature due to their immature physical state and their primitive metabolic responses. Extreme premature infants have little to no brown fat, high skin permeability, large surface area to body mass ratio, poor muscle tone and an immature central nervous system, which increases evaporation. Evaporation is the major cause of heat loss of the extreme premature infant. Cold stress can be prevented with the use of an incubator that provides a humid environment around the infant to decrease evaporation. This humid environment disappears when the canopy is raised and the side panels are lowered. The protective environment for the extreme premature infant will be lost. The effects of cold stress on the short term are respiratory distress, a low glucose level, acid-base derangements and if the infant’s compensatory mechanisms fail, even death. Long term effects of cold stress may result into a reduced cognitive and motor development, however this is difficult to determine due several other environmental influences such as physical contact, light and noise. The conclusion can be drawn that the Hybrid Incubator is not able to maintain the body temperature of the extreme premature infant during a medical procedure, which may result into a decreased health for the infant. However, users often prefer the Hybrid Incubator over a closed incubator due to the optimal access above the infant after raising the canopy. The priority of the doctors is to focus on the treatment rather than maintaining the infant’s body temperature. This results into a conflicting concern whereby the doctor wants optimal access and the infant needs a protective humid environment. The mission was to find a balanced compromised solution between the conflicting concerns: accessibility and protective environment. Conclusion The proposed design provides optimal access to the infant after removing the side panels and the canopy from the baby compartment, while protecting the infant against cold stress during a medical procedure due to the warm and humid environment. Flow simulations prove that it is possible to create a warm and humid environment. Though, a solution has to be found for the small temperature differences of the protected environment as for the increased outlet temperature, to meet the requirements. The design has been evaluated by integrating the medical staff to simulate the interaction. This resulted in a small temperature decrease and optimisation is required to increase the strength to provide a better warm and humid environment. The Airena makes use of a new incubator technique that has never been used before and looks promising based on the flow simulations. Optimisation is necessary to improve the design to maintain its protective environment. The Airena is already an improvement in comparison with the current incubators due to the increased warm and humid environment in combination with the optimal accessibility to the infant. My advise to BabyBloom Healthcare is to improve the Airena in cooperation with aerodynamic experts. A feasibility study must reveal if BabyBloom Healthcare can improve or extend their current product portfolio with the Airena.