Neonatal Feedrail: An innovative device to feed babies in a NeoNatal ICU.

Background

Feeding neonatal babies is a labourious, time consuming, delicate task which requires a degree of skill with the nurse doing the job. Babies have to be fed a few mililiters of milk every two hours average and round the clock. The rate of feed is very slow and assisted by gravity.Feedrail is an attempt to automate the laborious and manual parts of the process, bring consistency and stability in feeding.

Dr. Srinivas Murthy Professor(Pediatrics), JSS University

JSS University, Mysuru sponsored Feedrail.

Dr. Srinivasa Murthy, Professor and In-charge of NICU at JSS Hospital explaining the concept of Feedrail and how it can be useful in an NICU.

This concept was envisaged by Dr. Srinivas Murthy (Professor, Pediatrics, JSS University and Hospital, Mysuru) to ease the work load on the staff nurses at JSS Hospital and utilize their time more productively. Ideas Unlimited engineered it into a prototype. We have developed two prototypes of this device so far.

JSS University (Part of Jagadguru Shri Shivarathreeshavara Math of Suttur) is the primary sponsor who provided the grant for the development, patenting and clinical trials and other formal processes required for the approval of this product.

The Feedrail unit has a tiny tilt-bed (suited for use with neonatal babies) two positions: Sleep, Feeding position. This allows hands free operation for the nurse. Feedrail enables nurse to focus on monitoring babies rather than doing the manual tasks involved in the feeding of these babies. Also feedrail enables a nurse to feed multiple babies using multiple units and instead focus on monitoring the feeding of babies

Product and Technology Description

Neonatal Feedrail is an Automated Gavage Feeding Assist device that clips on to any Baby warmer in NICU (or) can be used with Optional Accessory “Tiltable Neonatal Bed”. The Feedrail has an Adjustable Syringe Holder With High quality Velcro to accomodate any size syringe.The device Lifts syringe from bottom to top of Main tower in approximately five to eight minutes

A catheter with special sensor is stuck to the neonates body, if disturbed the device alerts nurse with loud beeps and a blinking light. This way Nurse can distribute attention to feeding multiple babies instead of just one in conventional method. The neonatal Feedrail comes with built in battery pack and charger for reliablility, it can Auto shut off if battery low.

Build of production version!

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Prototype version build!

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Tiltable Neonatal Bed build

Click on left/right buttons to scroll through the pictures and description to see how Tiltable Neonatal Bed was built!