The Assam government has chosen to utilise the air pressure machine built by a Bangalore-based start-up across its hospitals as a result of the success of a pilot study to minimise infant mortality with a specific piece of equipment called “SAANS,” authorities said on Thursday.
Infants can get vital breathing support with the “SAANS” portable neonatal Continuous Positive Air Pressure (CPAP) equipment both in hospital settings and while travelling.
According to a senior representative of the startup InnAccel Technologies, the device produced “great results” when it was tested on a small number of infants at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital as a pilot study.
This led to the deployment of more than 50 SAANS devices across Assam’s medical colleges, with more deployments to district hospitals currently under way, he told PTI.
To increase respiratory assistance for newborns and paediatric populations in Assam, InnAccel Technologies, incubated at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), collaborated with the SAMRIDH Healthcare Blended Finance Facility on the development of the device.