Saving Infants, One Car Part at a Time

According to a recent study, as much as 98% of all medical equipment donated to developing nations is no longer functional by its fifth year of use. In these countries where money and technology are in short supply, it is near impossible to acquire even one simple spare part needed to repair the device. One MIT alumnus, however, has found a way to incarnate incubators from an unlikely source: used car parts.

Timothy Prestero SM '01, is the founder and CEO of Design that Matters, a nonprofit collaborative organization that designs life-enhancing technology like such incubators for developing countries.

The twist in DtM’s products lies in their innovative yet simple design and affordability. “The idea was to start with a 4Runner,” Prestero said in a New York Times interview, “and take away all the parts that weren't an incubator.” The company’s inventions include the Neonurture, a low-cost and low-maintenance incubator built entirely from recycled car parts, and Firefly, which uses the simplest method of phototherapy to treat infantile jaundice.

Many of the more expensive, traditional incubators donated to hospitals in developing countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia break down within a few years because the hospital staff is not trained to operate such high-tech machinery. Noticing hospital supply closets stacked with broken incubators in underdeveloped medical facilities, Prestero was determined to come up with an alternative device, without the befuddling buttons and user manuals.

"The goal isn't to create more problems for a community," said Prestero in an MIT-WHOI profile. "We don't want our products to make waste or burden communities with expense.”

For his work, Prestero won the 2007 Social Venture Network Innovation Award and the 2009 World Technology Award. In addition, Design that Matters won the National Design Award for Corporate and Institutional Achievement in 2012, while Firefly won Gold for Social Impact in the 2013 Edison Awards.

Design that Matters is based in Salem, Massachusetts, and was founded by Prestero and fellow MIT students in 2001.