SPOCK

When babies are born prematurely, they come to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Here the value of the saturation of oxygen (SpO2) is measured by an optical sensor that is attached to the foot with adhesive plaster. This sensor is being removed at least once a day, but this plaster hurts the baby and sometimes takes the skin off, which hurts the baby and influences the development of the baby negatively.

Process
The main goal of this project was designing a sock that holds the sensor so that the plaster was no longer needed but also getting rid of the movement artifacts. In order to find out more about these the experiences of the medical staff, we gathered information from medical magazines, talked to neonatologist prof. dr. Bambang Oetomo, and visited the NICU at the Maxima Medical Centre (MMC) where we talked to several nurses about the sensors and the neonatal babies.

Final Concept
We have tried a lot of concepts. Finally, we started considering a concept, which basically is a double-layered sock combined with a material that is a little stretchy and then a third layer in between that would be inflatable. Now you could easily adjust the pressure on the foot, depending on the movement of the sensor. The sensor would then be put in a pocket to make sure that the movement would be as limited as possible.