Saving Lives with Wearable Technology

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What started as a Yale undergraduate project is on its way to becoming a global health innovation that could lead to improved immunization for children in the developing world.

Khushi Baby (“khushi” means “happy” in Hindi) is a necklace containing a computer chip that stores up to two years of immunization records for young children. When linked to a mobile application using Near Field Communication technology, health care workers seeing patients in remote villages in India can access real-time data to help them ensure that children get and stay up to date on all of their necessary vaccinations.

Khushi Baby won the Yale School of Public Health’s inaugural Thorne Prize in 2014. Sponsored by InnovateHealth Yale, the prize awards $25,000 to the best student-led venture focused on social innovation in health or education. In November, the team went on to win UNICEF’s Wearables for Good Challenge, which provided them with an additional $15,000 in funding, as well as incubation and mentoring to grow the project.

Co-founder Ruchit Nagar, an M.P.H. student in the Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, and an interdisciplinary team of students conceived of Khushi Baby at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in a class, “Appropriate Technology in the Developing World,” co-taught by Dr. Joseph Zinter and Bo Hopkins, a lecturer at Yale. In addition to Nagar, the student team currently includes Praneeth Sadda, YSM ’18, Preethi Venkat, M.P.H. ’16, and Tyler Petrochko, Yale College ’18. The team, meanwhile, has also grown globally with Mohammed Shahnawaz and Sanjana Malhotra leading operations in India.

With their Thorne Prize award, the team traveled to India last year to flesh out their idea for a wearable immunization record. There, they got the input of nearly 100 mothers of small children, as well as local health care workers, as to the form of the technology; possible options included a bracelet, anklet or necklace. “Kids are already wearing these types of necklaces for cultural reasons, so it made sense,” said Nagar. “But we wouldn’t have known that had we not talked to the community.”

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