Each year 500,000 preterm babies are born in Europe out of 15-million worldwide. They often have poor health, with a severe lifetime impact on their quality of life and that of their families. Pre-term birth is a leading cause of lifelong disabilities with high societal economic costs. Inadequate nutrition is the major reason for preterm infants’ ill health. To grow as they would in utero, preterm infants need more nutrition than is provided by their mother’s milk, so the milk needs to be fortified to avoid undernourishment. However, the fortification typically done in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) does not take into account the individual differences in the human milk’s composition and the infant’s nutritional needs, which vary with age and weight.
To address this issue, the Preemie project aims at developing the Preemie system, the first rapid, portable, affordable, and easy-to-use milk testing system calibrated with human milk.
The system is able to measure in a rapid and easy way key components in human milk (protein, lipids, carbohydrates, energy, and also lactose and oligosaccharides), the freshness of milk (bacterial load), and the safety (somatic cells count). It also automatically calculates the fortification needed, to reduce workload and human errors in NICUs. Preemie also uses blockchain technology to trace the origin and confirm the authenticity of the donor’s milk. Preemie aims disrupting the existing market by allowing NICUs and human milk banks to scan all donor milk and automatically suggest fortification to be done based on each infant's individual needs, resulting in optimal health.
The main objectives are to develop and commercialize the Preemie system, validating it through a clinical trial in collaboration with a leading European Hospital, obtaining the medical certification needed, and implementing advertising, sales promotions and marketing activities.
