Want to verify your baby’s breathing at all times? You’ll need a device with wires, electrodes or other physical attachments to the child, said University of Utah bioengineering student Spencer Madsen. The Ph.D. candidate and new dad — with No. 2 on the way — set out to create a product that allows parents to keep tabs on their children’s respirations with no strings attached.
Madsen’s PlusOne Baby, a wireless, no-contact monitor, won the $15,000 grand prize at Monday’s Bench-to-Bedside competition, a University of Utah program sponsored by Zion’s Bank designed to not only introduce medical, engineering and business students to the world of medical device innovation but to help students start their own companies and take their inventions to market.
“As a first-time parent, you want everything to protect your child, but you need things that are reasonable, and you can’t attach stuff to your children because it increases the risk of strangulation,” said Madsen, moments after collecting his oversized check at the Utah State Capitol. “PlusOne Baby is a safety net of sorts. It’s always running, so, hopefully, it’ll have the ability to prevent issues with children, and you’ll have a fighting chance as a parent to prevent death.”