Design Thinking @ Embrace Global

Context: What was the motivation of the DT initiative?

In many developing countries premature birth and a low birth weight are the main reason for infant mortality. Premature or underweight babies often suffer serious health problems especially because they are not able to regulate their own body temperature. Their bodies are not fully developed and have less body fat which leads to the urgent need for special medical treatment. In most developed urban areas hospitals use incubators for these babies until they are able to control their body temperature on their own. But not everyone can rely on incubators because they do not work in every environment. Incubators are an expensive technology that requires the constant supply of electricity and trained staff that is able to operate them. That is why hospitals in some developing countries are not equipped with incubators, are overcrowded or even the treatment is too expensive because of a missing health insurance. In addition in rural areas hospitals are often far away which makes a special treatment almost impossible. But what if a 200 Dollar device is enough to save a baby´s life?

The motivation of this Design Thinking initiative is reducing the infant mortality rate in developing countries with a simpler solution for premature or underweight babies that offers a low-cost alternative for incubators.

Process:

Beginning in 2007 Jane Chen, one of todays cofounders of Embrace, did her Master of Business Administration (MBA) at Stanford University where she took part in a class at the design school. The task of her and her team was creating a low-cost technology for people living on less than a dollar a day. In this case it had to be a much cheaper alternative for an incubator. Their procedure clearly represents the phases of Design Thinking:

1. Empathize: Before the team started with collecting important information in person they already knew that million babies die within the first days of their life and million more babies grow up with debilitating health issues. To develop a fitting solution an excellent understanding of the situation was crucial. The team wanted to interview those who are affected by the problem to experience the conditions in person. This helped them truly understand what families were going through, beyond what any statistic could show. So they started visiting different countries like Nepal, Uganda and India to encounter with mothers, doctors and hospital staff.

Mostly they saw that the hospitals were overcrowded and a large number of babies were in need of incubators. Some hospitals even had modern incubators that were donated to them but they were empty. Instead of incubators the local people often used heat lamps or lightbulbs which were ineffective and also dangerous solutions in immediate vicinity to the babies. In addition many people did not live near a hospital and could not take advantage of special care for their newborns or in most areas did not serve a constant power supply to use modern medical equipment.

2. Define: With their observations and information through interviews with their potential future users they defined the most important problems and needs that their product had to solve. One of the biggest factors will be a low price to make their product available more easy for all people in need. It also has to be designed simple because the local people did not seem to have special knowledge about modern incubators. This is because even hospitals which had incubators where not able to use them properly. Their alternative has to be designed so that everyone without special knowledge is able to use it. The systemic issue of a missing constant power supply must also be solved with their new product so it has to work without being provided with electricity the whole time.

3. Ideate: After getting an overview of the problems and needs that had to be solved the team started brainstorming on a drawing board. How could they solve all these problems and still manage to sell for an affordable price? As they knew it had to be simple and self-explanatory to use their product, they thought of a base that reminds of a small sleeping bag. It should embrace the babies, store heat and is intuitive to use. But to provide babies enough warmth that can not regulate their own body temperature they also needed a material that can retain heat over a longer period of time without needing the constant supply of electricity. Their idea was to make use of the constant temperature a material has when changing phases. Because during a phase change (e.g., melting or boiling), the temperature remains constant until the transition is complete. This is because the added or removed energy is used for the state change, not for heating or cooling. If they find a way to combine the simplicity of a sleeping bag and a material to store heat it seems like a fitting solution. But they still needed to find a phase-change material that fulfills their claims.

Prototype of butter as a phase-change material

4. Prototype: As the team from Stanford University had a base idea of a solution they started testing ways to bring their little incubator to life. For their first attempts they built sleeping bags with duct tape to illustrate and try different shapes. The team also tried a combination of integrated tubes that can hold boiling water to melt the phase changing material. But it seemed dangerous to put boiling water next to babies so they discarded this idea and wanted to melt the phase-changing material outside of the sleeping bag. They also tested different materials that fulfill their idea as a phase-change material. One attempt was using butter. To test its characteristics they concealed butter in Ziplock bags and measured how well it is able to store the heat. After many self-built prototypes and testing different materials they discarded most ideas and tried using wax. Wax seemed to retain heat over a longer period of time and fulfilled their claims as a phase-change material.

First completed prototype that was tetsted on site

Then the team designed the sleeping bag itself again that will be combined with something that will hold the wax. In addition they had to use a material that is easy to clean and wipe of to guarantee reusability especially because as they saw in developing countries, most babies did not wear diapers. A few prototypes later they had a version of their portable incubator with only a few seems on the inside, a material that is easy to wipe down and a pocket on the back that holds the wax poach. The wax poach then will get melted in a special box that only needs to be supplied with electricity shortly. This prototype was the first one that they wanted to test on site.

5. Test: As the team constantly stayed in contact with the local people in developing countries and worked very closely together, they wanted to test their prototype with them. They went to India and got feedback by healthcare workers and mothers which they wanted to use to improve their prototype even more. For example Doctors requested an additional clear viewing window so they can observe the babies breathing and color more easy. Furthermore they first designed the wax poach with Celsius numbers that indicate the warmth of the wax. But the mothers on site said that the numbers are unsettling because there is the fear of western medicine being too rough for their babies. For that reason they decided to indicate the temperature with binary happy and frowning faces which are less intruding. This resulted in further iterations of ideating and prototyping.

A meeting with one of the cofounders of Embrace Global Jane Chen and people living in developing countries (left) and the change of the temperature indicator (right)

Result: The outcome

In summary they spent years testing hundreds of ideas with different prototypes and worked closely with affected people to get feedback from those who will use it. After starting the project in 2007 at Stanford University they founded the company Embrace Global in 2008 and after years of research and testing they were able to launch their finished product the Embrace-Incubator in 2011.

The finished product is a portable incubator that is affordable with its price being around 200US-Dollar. Its designed very simple to be used by everyone and does not need a constant power supply. Shortly after its launch, the Embrace-Incubator is used in many developing countries like India, Nepal, Zambia, Uganda, and more. Until today theire incubators already helped in 25 different countries across the world. According to Embrace they were already able to save around 700,000 babies since 2011 and their aim is to impact 1,000,000 babies by 2025.

The success of the product is due to the efficient Design Thinking method. Testing hundreds of prototypes and working together closely with the people led to the incubator that is as easy and efficient as it should be.

Embrace Global now is a nonprofit organization with a mission to provide their portable, low-cost, easy-to-use incubators to every baby in need. They work together with NGOs like UNICEF and also take action in today’s conflicts in Europe. Their incubators plays a huge role in Ukraine since the war with Russia started. And also with the rising conflict between Gaza and Israel Embrace rushed to support mothers and hospitals with their incubators.

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