Designers: Craig McGarrell, Craig McGarrell Limited, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England
Manufacturer: ROOTS Medtech C.I.C, Sawston, United Kingdom
Problem.
In 2019, 2.5 million children globally died during their first year of life. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in low-resource areas such as Ghana, a large proportion of births occur outside of a clinical setting which pose a much higher risk to a newborn. A risk compounded by inadequate or absent neonatal weighing and monitoring equipment.
Weighing scales that are currently available in locations like Ghana are often analogue, providing low accuracy and reliability and are too cumbersome to transport to remote locations. This could explain why, in Ghana, only 60% of infants are weighed at birth.
Solution.
The ROOTS Solar Scales concept is designed to provide low cost, safe, transportable, accurate neonatal weighing scales.
The ROOTS Solar Scales has been designed with extensive input from nurses across Ghana, including outreach clinics, neonatal wards and labour wards.
Nurses often travel to hard-to-access locations via scooter or on foot. In contrast to current heavy and cumbersome scales, the unique backpack-like design and lightweight materials makes it ideal for journeys to remote locations.
A reliable and sustainable power source is critical. Being powered by solar relieves the need to worry about charging the device. As a backup, the device contains a USB charging port.
This design uses a combination of load cells and simple LCD display to provide an inexpensive yet highly accurate and easy to read result.
A zip pouch on the inside of the scales provides a transparent space to fit common medical equipment and records.
By using calming pastel tones and gentle curves, our weighing scales provide babies with a comfortable and calm environment to be weighed and parents with a feeling of reassurance when watching their baby being weighed.
Current solutions are often made of metal, rusting over time and being uncomfortably cold or hot against the infant’s skin.
The ROOTS weighing bowl is made of plastic instead. Simple surfaces, such as the main bowl, provide an easy to clean surface between consultations.
A combination of simple finishes and technology allows the device to be inexpensive yet accurate and fit-for- purpose.
The device uses a minimal number of parts and simple construction that, should the device encounter damage, is easy to replace parts. This results in significantly less costly product than current scales ($50 per unit at full production).
An accurate measurement leads to improved dosing, better nutrition and weight, healthier development and ultimately better socio-economic life chances/outcomes.
