3. Why Are Infants Dying From Preventable Causes?
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Currently, there are no affordable, fully functional incubators for low-resource and emergency settings. Historically, there has been a lack of will to invest in innovation and basic neonatal healthcare. Dr. Breegi, founder and CEO of Breegi Scientific, Inc. has been working tirelessly for years to address this issue. After fleeing Baghdad in the middle of the war with his pregnant wife, his son was born in a rural hospital with no working incubators.
This terrifying and humbling experience led Dr. Breegi to devote his career to innovation and social justice for the disadvantaged. He is the inventor of several groundbreaking medical devices such as the neonatal intensive care incubator (NICI™) a platform technology that revolutionizes a century old infant incubator design. In this episode, Dr. Breegi details his experience in the field and sheds light on the huge issues with the infant incubator used in urban hospitals today.
In this Episode, We Cover:
The cost of an incubator and how maintenance can ramp up those costs overtime
What an infant incubator is and how it works as a biocontainment space
Studies done in France addressing infections caused by hospitals using incubators that needed to be replaced
How current infant incubators are designed specifically for high resource areas and neglect low resource countries
Groundbreaking phototherapy technology that only costs around 5% of traditional phototherapy
Dr. Breegis story and what led him down this path
Dr. Breegis idea to create a disposable biocontainment space
Mortality vs. Morbidity
The way that politics and socioeconomics in other countries affect this process
The NICI - a fully functional, high-tech infant incubator that Dr. Breegi wants to be independent from regular grid electricity.
Where his team is at in the research process now
What can we do to support Dr. Breegi’s mission?
Who is Dr. Wisam Breegi?
Dr. Breegi is founder and CEO of Breegi Scientific, Inc. He is an inventor, entrepreneur and human rights activist, with over 25 years of experience covering a wide range of medical fields and business. He served as director of preclinical research programs in several biotechnology companies, in addition to working and teaching in several academic institutions. He is a regular speaker and panelist in global health and medical device conferences. His career is built on innovation and social justice for the disadvantaged, stemming from his upbringing and education, with a unique perspective of certain medical issues and challenges. He is the inventor of several groundbreaking medical devices such as the neonatal intensive care incubator (NICI™) a platform technology that revolutionizes a century old infant incubator design; and with his son (Danny Breegi) they successfully led the efforts to obtain an EUA for his invention of negative pressure patient biocontainment device (NPS) for infectious diseases (such as COVID-19). He is a forward thinker and inventor. Dr. Breegi was a National Institute of Health postdoctoral fellow in Gastroenterology at Tufts University School of Medicine. He deeply understands the suffering of people, which reflects in the philosophy of Breegi Scientific, as well as his work. This is clearly represented in his involvement in many humanitarian projects around the world that touched directly thousands of people. Working with several governments and non-governmental agencies in the United States and UNHCR, he sponsored and settled over 2500 refugees from the Mandaean ethno-religious minority. His mission is equality and accessibility of healthcare for all.
