The James Dyson Award is an international design award for students that is run in eighteen countries. It is open to university students and those who have recently graduated from college in fields such as engineering, industrial design, and product design, who design something that helps society to solve a problem. This year’s winner was Sarah Heimeier, a twenty-two-year-old student at RMIT. The brilliant student designed a wearable device which monitors the health conditions of expectant mothers’ especially in rural areas and transmits data to doctors.
Sarah said that the idea of creating the device was inspired after she interacted with expectant women in the rural parts Australia. She found out that expectant women in the area face a lot of challenges considering that more than half of the maternity wards in the country have been shut down in the last fifteen years, according to a study conducted by the National Rural Health Alliance. Women in rural areas are less likely to access help from specialists and it is likely going to be at a greater cost to get the said amenities. Quality and personalized healthcare for expectant mothers are not guaranteed. The device named ‘Jana’ will solve most of their problems related to lifestyle fitness and keep their doctors updated on their health conditions. With this kind of real-time and specific information, doctors can be able to provide higher quality medical services and more personalized health care to these women.
So how does this device work? Jana is made up of a processor, an ultrasound transducer, and a transmitter all in a comfortably tiny device. The expectant woman just wears the tiny device on her belly which uses rare earth magnets and the ultrasound transducer to measure her blood pressure and heart rate. She then configures it with her mobile phone through an application in which she can view the information which will also be automatically sent to a doctor who will keep checking for any changes in the pregnancy. The wearable device can monitor blood pressure, glucose levels and fetal heart rate by using the sound waves that bounce off bodily tissues. Acoustic waves transmitted by broad band frequency are used to measure glucose levels. This will give early warning to the expectant women and their doctors in case of any possible complications. The records are kept to check on progress and look for any fluctuations in the health of the expectant mother and her unborn child. In function, Jana is like an ultrasound but it is simpler and its ability to share information with doctors who are far away is something that makes it very special. We can also not overlook the fact that this wearable is the friendliest wearable for pregnant women we have seen so far.
Until Jana came around, there were very few wearable technology that were made specifically for expectant mothers yet we can consider them the most important people if the continuity of life is anything to go by the existing wearable’s new technology on health are pretty much invasive. Those that are pregnancy focused don’t make it possible to get information that they can tell to their physicians. And honestly, how many times have we heard of something that directly targets people living in rural areas? This wearable definitely deserved the James Dyson Award. They are normally forgotten in most cases, but Sarah says she developed a lot of understanding and empathy for them considering all the untold hardships they went through to bring forth life.
This wonderful wearable is definitely not for expectant women in rural areas alone. It will also be of much help for ladies in big cities, especially those who have existing health complications. It will definitely improve the way maternal health is provided in rural areas as well as big city areas. It cannot be said that all women in huge cities have access to instant healthcare and although most of them do, some of them still get undesirable results. With this wearable gadgets 2015, a lot of physical and emotional strain is taken from the expectant mothers. Everyone would be more at ease knowing that there is a specialist who is closely monitoring them. You can relax knowing that Jana has got your back covered. Any expectant mom to be that is at a risk of developing some complications related to her pregnancy should definitely consider getting this awesome wearable.
For her troubles and her concern, Sarah Heimeier received three thousand and six hundred dollars for investing in the development of the design. International winners of the James Dyson Award were awarded to the team that developed the Voltera V-One rapid circuit board prototype. They received $48,000 which will be split between the university and the designers and used for the production of the device.
Author Bio
Shawn Clark, a Content Writer, Communications Analyst has a specialized expertise in writing articles on technical stuffs, for more than two years with interest on new trends in technology and gadgets. He is working as Communications Practitioner and Technocrat Expert Writer. Advocating all types of technical professionals. Connect with him on Facebook and Twitter.
