demo
the problem
NICU clinicians largely monitor infant feeding by watching and listening. There's no continuous, objective signal for whether an infant is sucking and swallowing safely. Feeding difficulty that goes unnoticed too long can mean longer NICU stays and added risk for already vulnerable infants. NeoFeed is built around closing that gap: giving clinicians a continuous, objective read on infant suction, instead of relying on manual observation alone.
what we built
NeoFeed pairs a pressure-sensing module with a bioimpedance module: one captures the mechanics of suction, the other the physiological signal underneath it. Both feed into a multi-layer PCB laid out in KiCad, with analog, digital, and power planes physically separated to keep the sensing signal clean. The sensing approach and board have gone through multiple hardware revisions as we've learned more about what clinicians actually need from the readout.
validation
We tested revisions against clinical benchmarks in the field in the Dominican Republic, and are currently pursuing IRB approval at Texas Children's Hospital to run a clinical study in a NICU setting. NeoFeed's core sensing approach is patent pending.
what's next
IRB approval at Texas Children's Hospital, followed by a clinical validation study inside a live NICU.
More at neofeedhealth.com.