Engineers from the University of South Australia and Iraq-based Middle Technical University have developed an imaging system to diagnose jaundice in newborn babies.

WHAT IT DOES

The said tool can detect newborn jaundice within a second, automatically turning on a blue LED phototherapy to treat it and then sending a diagnosis to carers. Treatment is triggered once it detects that the level of a yellow-orange pigment called bilirubin reached a certain threshold.

This system was tested on 20 newborn children with jaundice in an ICU in Mosul. The study involved five healthy babies, 11 jaundiced and four manikins with white and brown skin colours (with and without jaundice pigmentation). Findings of the study have been published in the engineering journal Designs.

WHY IT MATTERS

UniSA notes that jaundice occurs in up to 85% of all live births, including premature babies. While it is gone within three to five days without significant complications, it still can lead to thousands of infant deaths, particularly observed in Africa and Southeast Asia, where "treatment options are limited". A severe case of jaundice can also lead to brain damage and hearing loss. In 2010, for example, around 75,000 children worldwide were living with brain dysfunction due to complications from jaundice.

What the engineers from Australia and Iraq have created is a cheap, accurate non-invasive screening method for newborn jaundice. According to UniSA Professor Javaan Chahl, their system could be adopted globally in hospitals and medical centres where there are shortages in facilities and trained medical staff. 

THE LARGER TREND

Months ago, UniSA claimed to have made a significant breakthrough in remote patient monitoring using artificial intelligence. Researchers there have developed an AI computer vision system to remotely monitor the vital signs of premature babies and detect their faces while lying in bed. The baby detector software has been trained using videos of premature babies in NICU to reliably detect babies' skin tone and faces even when covered with tubes, clothing, or undergoing phototherapy for jaundice. Its vital sign readings, the researchers found in a study, has the same accuracy as ECG.