New app aims to save babies' lives
Anna Pujol-Mazzini
Friday, May 15, 2015
A new app lets parents upload pictures of their baby to contribute to scientific research and help premature babies in the developing world.
BabyFace, launched by the University of Nottingham, and now available on the App Store, will ask parents to send anonymous pictures of their newborn’s feet, face and ears together with information about their birth date and how many days or weeks early or late they were born.
The initiative could prevent millions of deaths in developing countries, where lack of medical equipment makes it impossible to determine the gestation of a baby. This means premature children often lack the specialist care they need, putting their lives at risk.
Dr Michel Valstar, who is leading the project, said, ‘What defines each gestational age is the number of wrinkles and the depth of them in the feet. The roundness of the eyes and how sharp they are at the corners is another indicator. By using and storing the pictures we collect, the app will begin to recall the shape of the eyes, ears and wrinkles in the feet.’
The computer scientists at Nottingham joined forces with experts in the university's Division of Child Health, Obstetrics and Gynaecology for the project, which has been supported with a $100,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The project was among around 60 successful bids to be funded by the foundation’s Grand Challenges Explorations Grant programme. More than 1,700 applications were received.
The app focuses on babies born anywhere between 28 days early up to 14 days late to build a database for researchers. Its privacy policy means all data collected will be completely anonymous, cannot be traced back to the participants and will only be accessible to the members of the research team.
A second app, NeoGest, will then be created to allow people in the developing world to use a smartphone to estimate the prematurity of a baby and decide whether specialist medical care is needed.
Dr Don Sharkey, from the Clinical Associate of Neonatal Medicine, said, ‘If a smartphone could give us the birth gestation of a newborn baby it would allow many low-middle income countries to give more detailed local advice to parents that could increase the chances of survival for premature babies.’
The team also plans to explore the potential ethnic differences in gestational development between babies born in different parts of the world.
