What is the name of your organization?
Che Innovations
What is the name of your solution?
Neonest
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
A portable infant warmer designed to prevent neonatal hypothermia during transport in low-resource settings.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Kampala
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
Uganda
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
According to WHO (2023), Neonatal hypothermia is a major cause of preterm deaths, accounting for over one million fatalities annually in the first hour of life, with 99% occurring in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) like Uganda. At Kawempe National Referral Hospital in Uganda, 40% of NICU admissions are preterm infants, with most transported from rural areas over 5 hours away. Ambulance personnel wrap the infant in bedsheets, get gloves filled with hot water, and place them around the infant to keep them warm. However, these makeshift warming methods fail to efficiently maintain temperature over long hours, increasing mortality risk. A 1°C drop in body temperature raises the risk of death by 82% (Alebachew et al., 2019).
Transport incubators, the standard form of transport, cost over USD 5,000 and so inaccessible for LMICs, and existing alternatives are unsuitable for transport. As a result, Uganda’s ambulance personnel lack an effective solution to prevent neonatal hypothermia during transit. There is an urgent need for an affordable, transport-friendly infant warmer to provide consistent thermal support, improving survival outcomes for preterm babies in Uganda’s healthcare system.
What is your solution?
NeoNest, is a portable infant warmer designed to ensure the safe transportation of newborns from remote areas to referral hospitals in low- and middle-income countries. It maintains an optimal temperature, reducing the risk of neonatal hypothermia.
NeoNest is composed of a warming system, a heat retention system, a carriage and protection system, a user alert system, and a power supply system. These components work together, creating a stable and thermoregulated environment, ensuring the infant remains warm. The device incorporates a temperature control algorithm that precisely regulates heat delivery, while a digital display provides real-time temperature status updates for caregivers. NeoNest can sustain consistent warmth for over four hours, making it ideal not only for long-distance transport but also for ward-to-ward transfers within hospitals where incubators may not be available.
Designed with affordability and scalability in mind, NeoNest is built using locally sourced materials, keeping production costs less than $100—a fraction of the cost of conventional transport incubators. Its lightweight and user-friendly design ensures ease of use for healthcare workers, ambulance personnel, and caregivers, ultimately improving neonatal survival rates in resource-limited settings. By addressing our problem, NeoNest has the potential to save thousands of lives and strengthen healthcare systems in LMICs.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Our solution, NeoNest, serves preterm and low-birth-weight infants in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), particularly those transported from rural health centers to referral hospitals. These newborns face a high risk of hypothermia, a leading cause of neonatal mortality. With NeoNest, we aim to reduce at least 80% of preterm deaths in LMICs by providing a safe, effective, and affordable warming solution during transport. In our pilot phase, we plan to reach at least 100 newborns, ensuring they receive the thermal support necessary for survival.
Our secondary beneficiaries include ambulance personnel and healthcare workers, who will be equipped with a reliable and user-friendly infant warming device. This improves their capacity to provide critical neonatal care, replacing ineffective makeshift warming methods with a consistent and controlled solution. By improving neonatal transport, NeoNest enhances both survival rates and healthcare efficiency.
We work closely with marginalized communities, including low-income families, rural populations, and vulnerable mothers facing high neonatal mortality rates. Beyond transport, NeoNest is also valuable within hospitals—it can be used for ward-to-ward transfers and as an alternative to incubators in facilities with limited resources, ensuring that even the most underserved infants receive the warmth they need to survive and thrive.
