Smart phone tech to improve donor human milk donation safety - Gates Foundation funds South African research

How cool is this? A grant to explore smart phone technology that will monitor and validate the temperature of human milk during flash-heating in order to ensure its safety. The money comes from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the work is being done by a multidisciplinary team including the Computer Science and Engineering department at the University of Washington and the Human Milk Banking Association of South Africa.

Health News - Boosting infant nutrition through cell phone technology: Boosting infant nutrition through cell phone technology
08/11/2011 03:22:00

PATH will lead a new research project to develop a low-cost, cell phone–based system for human milk banks to monitor the safety of donated breast milk, supported by a $100,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges Explorations initiative.

The system combines the power of cell phone technology with the simplicity of a low-tech flash-heating pasteurization process to ensure that breast milk donated to feed vulnerable infants is free of bacteria and viruses, including HIV, while retaining its nutritional value.

Developing a prototype monitoring system
The 12-month grant was made to a multidisciplinary team that includes PATH and two partner organizations—the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington and the Human Milk Banking Association of South Africa.

The team will develop and field-test a networked temperature sensing system using FoneAstra, a cell phone technology, to accurately monitor and validate temperatures during flash-heating. It will provide real-time, audiovisual feedback to users, allow automated supervisor monitoring, and archive results for review and audit....