DtM CEO Timothy Prestero gave a talk titled "From One to Many: How can a few people on a shoestring budget save half a million lives?" Lots of founders can tell you the story of their first big success...
DtM Indiegogo Closes with 130 Contributors & 228% its Goal!
We did it! We reached over 228% of our funding goal, thanks to 130 contributors from the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Kenya. Over 39 days, 4249 people visited the Pelican campaign from 35 countries, spreading awareness about childhood pneumonia across the globe. Your help will allow us to push forward with the development of the Pelican Pulse Oximeter. We'll continue to build awareness of pneumonia as a major global health issue.
Congratulations to Ashley McGregor Dey, winner of our Squawking Pelican Contest! Ashley shared the Pelican campaign through Indiegogo’s social media links, leading to 50 people visiting our campaign. Runners up are Bre DiGiammarino and Kevin Wiesner with 26 and 20 campaign visitors respectively.
Thanks again for all of your help! We couldn't have done it without you. If you or someone you know is still interested in contributing to the campaign, you can make a secure donation to Design that Matters on our website!
Holy Smokes! DtM Pelican Indiegogo Passes 100 Funders!
In just 4 days we have gone from 66 supporters to over 100! This is totally unexpected and incredibly exciting news! We can't express the importance of this outpouring of Pelican support as we begin to scale the project. Help us build the campaign further as we continue to raise awareness for newborn pneumonia, the number one killer of children under five.
Your show of support means more attention and resources to solve this serious problem and bring us closer to a world of happy moms. Please help us by sharing on Facebook and Twitter, blogging, and spreading the word! Thank you!
MIT + RISD Pelican Team Update: Final Review
After a gruelling semester of ups and downs our MIT + RISD team has reached their final presentation, and what a presentation it was! The team’s final design addresses needs DtM had identified from overseas and new insights the student team uncovered during research with health care providers in Boston. Their concept embodies a variety of qualities that make it suited for the developing world context, some include:
- All in one design: eliminates unruly cords that can be easily damaged
- Compact, but not too small: small enough to carry around, but harder to accidentally lose
- Constant Alignment: hinged jaw design keeps sensors aligned, no room for user error
- Torsion Spring: pressure on baby’s foot is controlled by a spring, not the user
- Accommodates Many Foot Sizes: hinged design allows for quick adjustment
- Trigger: no need to fumble with band-aid style sensors, the trigger is simple and intuitive
- Only necessary features: only settings or readings that are needed
We are incredibly proud with all that the team has accomplished this past semester, and can't wait to test the concept in the field with a variety of our internal sacrificial concepts. Thank you Aditya, Esther, Keiichi, Kevin, Leah, Phillip, Shubhang, Victoria and Wei for all of your hard work! We look forward to working with you as we move Pelican forward!
Check out a video of their concept below!
- Will Harris, IDSA
DtM Designer
DtM Indiegogo Reaches $10K Goal!
We made it to $10,000! Thank you so much to our 66 supporters. We still have 24 days left, and we have set a stretch goal of reaching 100 contributors!
Your show of support means more attention and resources to solve this serious problem and bring us closer to a world of happy moms. Please help us by sharing on Facebook and Twitter, blogging, and spreading the word! Thank you!
MIT + RISD Pelican Team Update: Design Review
We would like to take this opportunity to showcase the fantastic work our MIT + RISD student team been doing to ramp up Project Pelican, especially after seeing their great design review this past week. Some of the highlights include:
- Conducting user interviews with a variety of stakeholders including local nurses and moms.
- Creating a “works-like” prototype design with all of the electronics necessary to work as a real pulse oximeter.
- Creating a “looks-like” prototype design that takes into account both the mechanics and usability.
- Building new relationships with local health care providers who have experience in global health and will assist DtM throughout Project Pelican.
- Designing the groovy Pelican logo we have adopted!
We are just weeks away from the student team’s final presentation and we can't wait to see what they produce!
- Will Harris, IDSA
DtM Designer
DtM Launches Indiegogo Campaign to Save Babies Worldwide from Pneumonia
In honor of Mother’s Day and mothers around the world, Design that Matters invites you to support our crowdfundingcampaign, hosted on Indiegogo's freshly redesigned platform.
We are raising $10,000 to launch the Pelican Pocket Pulse Oximeter Project to create a durable, affordable tool for diagnosing babies with pneumonia.
We’re also raising awareness of pneumonia, a condition that we in the U.S. hardly ever worry about, and the #1 cause of death in children under five.
We need as many people as possible to join our campaign to build the momentum we need to fight newborn pneumonia. Take action:
- Make a donation
- Share on Facebook and Twitter
- Tell your friends!
Even if you can't contribute financially, please help us spread the word about Project Pelican and pneumonia awareness!
DtM and CAMTech Partner for Healthcare's Grand H@ckfest
The DtM team served as a mentor and partner for Healthcare's Grant H@ckfest. This 48-hour hackathon was hosted by MIT H@cking Medicine, the Kauffman Foundation, and CAMTech. Elizabeth gave a keynote to the more than 350 students, young entrepreneurs, engineers, and medical professionals, using the story of Firefly to illustrate the importance of developing a focused project statement.
During the pitch sessions, DtM presented a new project idea -- a system for connecting medical devices such as Firefly to donors, hospitals, NGOs, and service technicians via sms text message. Our hackathon team, “DataWings for Firefly,” created a working data visualization prototype that won an athenahealth award. The DataWings team was so inspired by the experience that they will continue to work on the project in hopes of creating a proof of concept that we can present during 2014.
Elizabeth's talk at Healthcare's Grand H@ckfest is part of our series sharing lessons learned from the design and launch of Firefly phototherapy. This series is made possible with support from The Lemelson Foundation in celebration of 20 years of improving lives through invention.
NeoNurture Exhibited in Ireland!
NeoNurture was shipped to Science Gallery in Dublin to be exhibited at Fail Better. Much like Tim’s TEDxBoston talk, Fail Better highlights the importance of failure in design and innovation and features some of the “world’s greatest failures” by famous explorers, inventors, scientists, and athletes. The exhibit includes work from design and engineering greats like James Dyson and Eben Upton, the creator of Raspberry Pi! This is NeoNurture’s first time on exhibit in Europe and will hopefully inspire a whole new generation of great minds to create context-appropriate technology for the developing world.