Problem Statement

Jaundice is very common among newborns, with the majority having mild-to-moderate cases in the first 28 days of their lives. In more severe cases, jaundice can potentially have fatal consequences. However, while newborns are usually managed at home as their jaundice doesn’t warrant hospitalisation, current non-invasive bilirubin monitoring products are lacking, as is professional guidance. Parents nearly always have to go back to hospital for consultation and monitoring. For such newborns, monitoring of bilirubin levels at home will improve jaundice management.

Objective

This project aims to develop a demonstrative prototype of PTMaster™ Home for jaundice monitoring that can remove invasive blood tests for bilirubin during phototherapy. Thus, there will be no pain for newborns, and costs will be reduced. Advantageously, the monitoring system will give real-time feedback on the condition of a patient, removing uncertainties over the newborn’s bilirubin levels. PTMaster^TM, when eventually used at the hospital, will improve efficiency by reducing jaundice hospital stays and nurse workloads through the automated adjustment of phototherapy.

Key Benefits/ Outcomes

• NUS and E3A successfully designed and delivered the functional PTMaster™ HOME prototype, allowing and transmitting jaundice measurement immediately.
• The 3D printed prototype is near-production ready and the testing data obtained using the prototype will be used for substantiating the existing patents.
• The prototype developed for PTMaster™ HOME will be used as the reference for proceeding with the Design for Manufacturing (DfM) part of E3A’s Quality Management System implementation.
• The prototype will be used for conducting further clinical tests on human babies and to go through certification process with National Medical Products Administration, China.