|
MiraCradle, an award winning medical innovation by Pluss Advanced Technologies Pvt Ltd, is now instrumental in reducing neo-natal mortality (death due to birth asphyxia) in over 100 hospitals in India and South Africa. MiraCradle has now been adopted by hospitals across 19 states and 2 Union territories across the country.
MiraCradle has recently received the prestigious CE Mark. With the help of this certification MiraCradle can now be exported to more than 50 countries without any further regulatory requirements. MiraCradle, designed, developed and manufactured in India is the perfect example of a “Make in India product” (in other words an Indian technology changing the global healthcare landscape). MiraCradle has also been adopted in South Africa with successful installations of 6 devices and 20 more installations expected in the next six months.
MiraCradle - Neonate Cooler is an affordable passive cooling device which uses the advanced savE phase change material (PCM) technology to induce therapeutic hypothermia among newborns suffering from birth asphyxia. According to a report by WHO, birth asphyxia, defined as the failure to establish breathing at birth, accounts for an estimated 650,000 deaths each year and is one of the primary causes of early neonatal mortality.
Samit Jain, managing director, Pluss Advanced Technologies Pvt Ltd says, “Birth asphyxia babies, who are unable to breathe properly, needs to be cooled to prevent brain damage because of low supply of oxygen to the brain. But, the only device available to cool the babies costs more than $25,000 and cannot be afforded by most hospitals in developing countries Pluss Advanced Technologies Pvt Ltd with its innovation MiraCradle has brought down the cost of a cooling device, by 80%.” Uninterrupted power needed to run a cooling device was an equally big challenge which has been done away with the usage of MiraCradle.
First device of this kind in the world MiraCradle is included in the WHO compendium of Innovative Health Technologies for Low resource setting.
Developed in collaboration with CMC Vellore in 2014, MiraCradle is the winner at the Innovators’ competition for DST-Lockheed Martin India innovation growth programme 2015, CII Industrial Innovation award 2014 and Kirloskar Technology award in 2015.
As stated above, MiraCradle- Neonate Cooler uses the advanced savE phase change material technology. Phase Change Materials (PCMs) are special thermal energy storage materials that store and release heat at a particular temperature. The thermal energy transfer occurs when the material changes phase from solid to liquid or liquid to solid. MiraCradle- Neonate Cooler uses the first of its kind - Form Stable PCMs. PCMs have been incorporated in a polymer matrix to ensure that when changing phase from solid to liquid PCMs retain its shape and form avoiding any risk of the PCM leaking from its encapsulation, thus making it completely safe for the user as well as the patient.
To ensure precise temperature control, MiraCradle- Neonate Cooler uses a cascaded system of PCMs. Cascaded system is a patented technology that employs use of two or more form stabilized PCM mattresses with melt/freeze at different temperatures. By engineering the melting points, thicknesses, conductivities and placement of the involved layers, a “quasi-automated” cooling system is created, which, while being completely passive, behaves like a servo-automated cooling device.
|