According to the World Health Organization, approximately 15 million babies are born prematurely annually. A premature birth can carry significant health and mortality risks. To thrive, many of these babies require additional care from parents and medical professionals, including feeding. The most popular method to nourish premature babies is through enteral feeding pumps. The goal of our project is to work with biomedical engineering students to create a low-cost automatic feeding pump alternative and enter the Ghanaian market to improve the quality and efficiency of feeding premature babies in Ghanaian hospitals. Our industrial engineering team collected data, conducted expert interviews, and performed risk and market analysis, to determine the best avenues to pursue in terms of manufacturing, assembly, customer choice, and projected outcomes. Given the current prototype design of the feeding pump, our analyses determined it is most economical and less risky to manufacture product parts in the United States and assemble the feeding pump in Ghana. The results of the Business Model Canvas laid the groundwork for subsequent venture evaluation as the prototype is further developed. We also performed a process improvement analysis to evaluate and guide future opportunities for cross-disciplinary student project work. Our team recommends the use of agile methodology for meetings and deliverables, and an online software hub consisting of a central repository for all work and seamless communication between every team.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Hagan, Elizabeth A.
• Lombardo, Salvatore J.

Subject

• Health
• Project-Based Learning
• Well-Being

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• 17151
• E-project-040621-130343

Advisor

• Konrad, Renata
• Albrecht, Dirk

Year

• 2021

Sponsor

• Therapeutic Innovations

UN Sustainable Development Goals

• 3 - Good Health and Well-being
• 4 - Quality Education

Date created

• 2021-04-06

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Management Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright

Last modified

• 2022-05-16