Open Source Neonatal Light Therapy Device

Severe neonatal jaundice (SNJ) or hyperbilirubinemia is responsible for over 114,000 unnecessary neonatal deaths annually as the technology that can treat the condition is cost prohibitive for low- and middle-income countries. In this study an open-source neonatal light therapy device to treat SNJ is designed, built and validated against phototherapy technical specifications set by the American Academy of Paediatrics and UNICEF. The open source device can be built for a tenth of the cost of the least expensive proprietary alternative on the market, while producing treatment metrics equivalent to or exceeding commercial devices available in developed nations. The device, whose material costs are $93.00 USD, was shown to produce irradiance of 80 µW/cm2/nm within the acceptable range of 420 – 500 nm. It was further demonstrated that the unit could produce a uniform distribution of (34.5 ± 4.3) µW/cm2/nm over a surface area exceeding 3,200cm2. These findings validate the effectiveness of the open-source neonatal light therapy device in delivering accurate, consistent, and reliable irradiance for neonatal jaundice management. By releasing full documentation in an open-source manner the device may be broadly distributed to ensure affordable and consistent low-cost means of improving the quality of care for newborns suffering from jaundice.