Transformed Toyotas can save lives -- as incubators
As Printed in the Boston Business Journal, October 5, 2007 - by Mark Hollmer Journal staff
The "Transformers" science fiction movie that came out during the summer -- based on a 1980s-era toy line and cartoon -- made a big splash with its story about other-worldly robots that can morph and mold themselves into different objects.
Dr. Kris Olson, 37, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, is heading an effort, which that takes the concept and translates it into something that could revolutionize health care.
Simply put, his group is exploring whether it can take a Toyota motor vehicle, dismantle it and use vital parts that can be reassembled into ... incubators for infants in the developing world.
"What we learned this summer is we can generate heat out of headlights, use new air filters for incoming air ... and use car alarms to signify something is wrong," Olson said.
Olson is the new head of the global health initiative at the Center for Integration of Medicine & Innovative Technology, or CIMIT, a consortium of hospitals and universities based at MGH that focuses on blending science and engineering with medicine in an effort to improve patient care.
A couple of months ago, CIMIT brought together a group of global health experts from MGH, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Children's Hospital Boston and scientists from Boston University where the group talked about ways to improve care of infants in the third world.
They feel a sense of urgency based on some stark statistics. Four-million babies die in the first four weeks of life around the world each year with 98 percent of that number in the developing world. Olson said he chafes at that number because many of the deaths are preventable; 2.7 million babies die each year because of premature birth or infection -- something that an incubator (or isolette) can help address.
It's not that others haven't tried.
Organizations have donated high-tech incubators that cost as much as $37,000 a piece but they need meticulous maintenance. That's a problem in the developing world, where power supplies can be intermittent at best and power surges can kill high-tech devices. Distribution networks to fix complex machines like incubators are also sporadic, leaving hospitals forced to trash broken machines.
"We see graveyards of newborn isolettes behind hospitals," Olson explained.
And so after discussing the idea with doctors in Zambia and Indonesia and considering options through the CIMIT group, the idea came up to adapt a Toyota into an incubator.
Olson sees the concept as reasonable.
"Toyota and other automakers have learned to function well in the developing world, not only by developing good reliable products but by having distribution chains of replacement parts and people who know how to fix things when they break," Olson said. "And we want to leverage that knowledge to see if we can build effective incubators with core components made out of Toyota parts."
With $150,000 in CIMIT funding, CIMIT grouped together with a team of engineers from Design That Matters Inc., a Cambridge-based nonprofit design company that looks to develop products that can help improve lives in the third world.
They built two prototypes that in theory could work just about anywhere, running off a car or motorcycle battery.
Olson estimates the group needs another $1 million to design a more detailed prototype and then conduct clinical trials. And $10 million in funding will be needed to develop a regional manufacturing system.
Toyota's blessing will also be crucial. The CIMIT group has spoken with Toyota Motor Corp.'s Africa division, and Olson said executives are interested.
The idea has since been forwarded to the company's Japanese headquarters, where all sides are hoping for approval to use Toyota parts for the project.
Mark Hollmer, who covers biotechnology, health care and life sciences, can be reached at mhollmer@bizjournals.com.
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