Innovation: We have identified innovations from our research. The main innovation is the ability of the device to send instant SMS alert to enable the physician to remotely monitor the infant and give instructions to the mother or care giver when necessary. This is an important innovation because the doctors need to monitor in real-time the condition of their patients in order to provide appropriate interventions when necessary. Furthermore, our innovation include a blood pressure monitor to enable the device monitor blood pressure on infants suffering from apnea who are also prone to suffer from neonatal hypertension.

Sector/Industry Application: Health

Description: The research was designed to solve the problem of apnea in infants. Apnea is a sleep disorder that leads to cessation of breathing for at least 20 seconds while a person is asleep. This disorder is prevalent in premature babies within the first few months of birth. About 70% of premature babies born before 34 weeks of pregnancy suffer from this disorder. This condition is also affected by neonatal hypertension. If this condition is not properly monitored and managed, it could lead to brain damage or even death. There is a need to constantly monitor the affected baby while asleep to detect apnea when it occurs and also monitor other physiological parameters such as the respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, and heart rate to ensure that they do not fall below or exceed accepted safe thresholds. Our device was designed to achieve these functions and in addition, the device has an IoT feature that enables the physician to receive instant alerts on their mobile phone in order to remotely monitor apnea occurrence in their patients even when they are not physically there. This added feature will help them to provide the needed interventions on their patients. Conventional apnea monitors are unable to provide real-time remote monitoring capabilities. Our invention is based on the natural abdominal movement during breathing and its stoppage when apnea occurs. We used an accelerometer to detect this movement and its stoppage during apnea episodes. An alarm is triggered when breathing stops and an instant SMS is sent to the physician. The performance of the device was monitored through a webserver. The device was validated in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) where pilot testing was performed on a selected group of patients. Our innovation has been patented. The patent number is: RP: NG/PT/NC/2020/4932

Problem: The research aimed to solve the problem of detecting and monitoring apnoea in infants.