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Project Firefly wins Highest Spark Design Award

Wed 23 Jan 2013
Spark Awards
Project Firefly has won a Spark:Pro Spark! Award in the 2012 Spark:Pro Awards. Out of the many entries Firefly rose to the top, joining the ranks of Tesla Motors, Philips, Steelcase & fuseproject.

ABOUT PROJECT FIREFLY
Jaundice resulting from hyperbilirubinemia affects 60% of newborns worldwide; 10% of those affected will develop permanent, long-term disabilities or brain damage without treatment. It can take up to three days for an infant born with jaundice to travel from a rural area in Vietnam to a facility with phototherapy. Meanwhile, the infant’s condition worsens often beyond the hope of treatment.

Firefly is the first low-cost phototherapy device that Vietnamese clinicians trust to use in the room with mothers in rural hospitals--a context that supports an optimal cycle of newborn phototherapy and feeding for rapid and effective treatment. The combination top and bottom phototherapy, robust enclosed housings, table-top size, removable and cleanable single-infant bassinet, and high-tech medical aesthetic make it the most trustworthy, intuitive and effective phototherapy device affordable for low-resource, remote settings in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

The goal of this effort is to reduce the volume of otherwise-healthy newborns referred to overloaded national-level hospitals by equipping rural district hospitals in Vietnam and Southeast Asia with a trusted, safe, affordable tool to provide phototherapy in the mothers’ room.

Learn more about Project Firefly

Firefly

Firefly in Da Nang General Hospital during the summer of 2012.

ABOUT THE SPARK AWARDS
The Spark mission is to promote better living through better design. The Spark founders believe Design is an important, relevant tool to help build a better world. We feel that Design and designers act as catalysts, addressing problems and improving our lives and our Earth. Designers may be from anywhere, of any age, of any education. But they design!

Sparks are big ideas “embodied as great designs”. Spark awards the biggest ideas in a wide range of disciplines and catagories. Spark crosses traditional design boundaries (industrial, graphic, interiors, etc.) to highlight the power and value of great design.

The submitted designs are evaluated by expert and independent judges from design and related fields. Their knowledge and experience are the ultimate arbiters of the Spark Awards. The criteria reflect the key factors that they take into consideration. The judges look for these "big ideas" when they make their choices.

Learn more about the Spark Awards

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