Saving Lives with Wearable Technology

A research study is currently underway to determine how well the necklace works to increase immunization rates, which Nagar estimates to vary widely, but average between 50 percent to 60 percent in India’s rural areas, well below the World Health Organization’s benchmark of 90 percent. The team is also testing the use of automated voicemails, designed by Sadda and recorded in local dialect, that remind mothers to bring children in for health care services. According to Nagar, the preliminary study data, which will be finalized in the spring, shows that the combination of the necklace and voicemails are having a positive impact on getting kids vaccinated on time.

Next, Khushi Baby plans to continue their impact evaluation, and to scale up. They hope to eventually integrate their system with the existing national health care registry in India, and ultimately transform how data is fed into the system, making it more streamlined and accessible from even the most remote areas.

About 500 children in India are currently wearing the Khushi Baby necklace, and 1,400 children have been tracked to date. Nagar and his team hope this number will expand rapidly in the coming year and that by the end of 2016 as many as 5,000 children will be wearing a Khushi Baby necklace.

Down the line, Nagar said the device could be introduced in other areas with low immunization rates, such as parts of Nigeria, Pakistan or Latin America. The small computer chip in Khushi Baby could transform the devise into a variety of forms, making it culturally accessible anywhere in the world, as well as store new forms of health information for the pregnant mother as well.

“The financial sector often talks about return on investment, and in dollar terms our $25,000 award has resulted in Khushi Baby securing over $300,000 in gifts and grants” said Martin Klein, director of InnovateHealth Yale and associate dean for development and external affairs at the School of Public Health. “But the return that matters most is the tens of thousands of children who will be immunized thanks to the Khushi Baby team.”

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