Two Vanderbilt biomedical engineering graduates have developed a mattress that simulates the comforting warmth, heartbeat, and breathing of a mother cradling a newborn infant, and the award-winning design promises to improve infant care in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs).
The Infant Sleep Mate, designed by Anne Morgan and Elizabeth Kuhls, both 1997 graduates, was recognized in an international competition last fall in Chicago. The inventors hope to pursue a patent for their design.
Paul King, associate professor of biomedical engineering, encouraged his students to enter their senior design project in the 19th annual International Conference of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. The Vanderbilt engineering students' entry placed first among 100 entries in the student paper competition against students from Yale, Mercer, and Texas A & M. They designed the prototype with assistance from Bill Walsh, a neonatologist who directs Vanderbilt's NICU, and Vanderbilt NICU nurse Claire Cooper. The competition was sponsored by the Whitaker Foundation, a private nonprofit foundation that primarily supports research and education in biomedical engineering.
A visit to the neonatal intensive care unit at Vanderbilt Hospital during their sophomore year inspired Morgan and Kuhls to design a device that would simulate the mother's presence and comfort after birth, thereby enhancing sleep conditions and improving the growth and development of NICU infants during this critical time in their lives. These tiny patients are often bombarded with harsh but life-sustaining conditions--loud sounds from ventilators, continuous bright lighting, and uncomfortable touch during medical procedures.
The students' mattress is unique because it combines motion, heat, surface, and sound.
"I think the idea behind the mattress is intriguing," says Walsh, who has been director of the hospital's nursery since 1992. "Keeping the baby warm and the gentle motion of the mattress should decrease the apnea spells they have."
The first criterion for the design was to provide a soft support for intensive care infants. The Infant Sleep Mate uses a gel mattress, which is soft and reduces pressure points on the infant. The gentle, up-and-down motion of the mattress simulates the breathing of the mother, which in turn helps the infants breathe better. "In future studies we would like to measure the reduced number of apnea spells, monitor weight gain, head shape, length of hospital stay, and duration of sleep cycles among infants using the mattress," Morgan says. The motion system relies on an air sac that is inflated by an adjustable ventilator.
The water-heating component of the mattress heats the infant from below, rather than from bed warmers located above the infant. Currently, most infants in a NICU are placed on beds heated from an overhead heating source. Convective heat loss is a problem with this type of heating unit, Morgan says.
To further simulate a mother's calming presence, the Infant Sleep Mate utilizes heartbeat sounds, which were recorded on a microcassette with the help of cardiologist Drew Gaffney.
"The NICU is one of the loudest environments in a hospital, with 50 to 90 decibels of sound," Morgan says. "We wanted to add soothing sounds to compensate for the loud environment."
Following graduation, Morgan worked in the Vanderbilt Heart Transplant Program as a biomedical engineer before entering medical school at Indiana University. Kuhls is a medical student at Duke University.

 

PREVIOUS NEWS BRIEF

NEXT NEWS BRIEF

Engineering News Home | School of Engineering Homepage | Vanderbilt University Homepage
Copyright © 1999, Vanderbilt University.