In June 2019, Johnson & Johnson, in collaboration with AWHONN, launched the Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge in Maternal and Newborn Health, the third in a series of nurse-led innovation challenges. This Challenge invited nurses to submit their novel concepts, protocols, screenings, treatment approaches and device ideas with the potential to drive better health outcomes in women’s health, obstetric and neonatal settings.
Ahead of National Nurses Week and Mother’s Day, we’re excited to announce that the awardees of this Challenge are Nicole Lincoln, MSN, RN, APRN-BC, CCRN, Advisor at Breegi Scientific, Inc. and Senior Manager of Nursing Innovations at Boston Medical Center, and Sigi Marmorstein, RN, PHN, MSN, FNP-BC, Founder and CEO at BabyLiveAdvice.com.
“Nurses have a tremendous understanding of patient needs and recognize opportunities to improve maternal healthcare. They are best positioned to develop innovative solutions with the potential to improve health outcomes for mothers and their babies,” said Lynda Benton, Senior Director of Corporate Equity at Johnson & Johnson, who leads the Johnson & Johnson commitment to nurses. “We were thrilled to partner with AWHONN for our first Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge in Maternal and Newborn Health and can’t wait to see what Nicole and Sigi are able to accomplish with their transformative potential solutions.”
The Johnson & Johnson Notes on Nursing team recently spoke with nurse innovators Nicole and Sigi to learn more about their innovative solutions and how being awarded the Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge in Maternal and Newborn Health can help them advance their solutions.
Nicole Lincoln, MSN, RN, APRN-BC, CCRN, Advisor for Breegi Scientific, Inc. and Senior Manager of Nursing Innovations at Boston Medical Center, assisted in the development of the disposable Neonatal Intensive Care Incubator (NICI™), the world's first low-cost, all-in-one neonatal intensive care incubator with a disposable housing.
The NICI™ provides the opportunity for babies who need incubators to be monitored in a less acute setting, such as smaller rural hospitals and clinics, which can help to reduce the burden on both parents and the healthcare system. In the event of an international crisis, it can be packaged, shipped and unfolded. There’s a place for our incubators in every ambulance. For rural communities far from NICUs, it can provide babies with high quality care before they even get to a hospital. We can hopefully revolutionize NICU care by providing this flexibility across the care continuum.
Current incubators are almost like cars. They are massive pieces of technology that are expensive and take up a lot of space in a hospital. We’ve created a portable model that has the potential to deliver much more than today’s incubators and can be used in any setting. Unlike other comparable devices available today, ours is able to provide multi-functionality because it can run on electricity, utilize WiFi and health data, is low cost and provides heat, humidity, phototherapy and ventilation.
[1] World Health Organization, & UNICEF. (2018). REACHING THE EVERY NEWBORN 2020 MILESTONES. Every Newborn Progress Report 2018 Executive Summary. Retrieved from https://www.healthynewbornnetwork.org/hnn-content/uploads/Summary-Every-Newborn-progress-report-2018.pdf
[2] World Health Organization, & UNICEF. (2018). REACHING THE EVERY NEWBORN 2020 MILESTONES. Every Newborn Progress Report 2018 Executive Summary. Retrieved from https://www.healthynewbornnetwork.org/hnn-content/uploads/Summary-Every-Newborn-progress-report-2018.pdf
By leveraging my experiences as a nurse, a founding member of the Society of Nurse Scientists, Innovators, Entrepreneurs & Leaders (SONSIEL) and as the Senior Manager of Nursing Innovations at Boston Medical Center, I was able to advise on features the incubator needed to be better adopted by nurses and other healthcare workers. I converged feedback from nurses who advised on the entire design of the incubator, including its shape, what it could be used for, where the keypad should be located and more. As a nurse, I also understood the significance of bringing together other teams, such as doctors, scientists and respiratory therapists to improve the design.
Sigi Marmorstein, RN, PHN, MSN, FNP-BC, Founder and CEO at BabyLiveAdvice.com, created a telehealth platform that offers online support and advice from live healthcare providers for expectant mothers and parents.
To date, we have over 3,000 members and have conducted over 14,000 consultations in both rural and urban communities for both men and women. We are online, have an app and are on all social media channels offering free chat advice, talking to groups and making ourselves available where these vulnerable mothers might be. BabyLiveAdvice now offers several membership packages for personalized prenatal, infant and toddler care. We also have contracts with insurance providers who can help cover the costs of membership and appointments. The feedback from our users has been amazing, and they are spreading the word. People across the entire country use BabyLiveAdvice, and a good number of our consultations have been done internationally. We’ve also developed a white label application which allows others to use our platform with their own healthcare providers, further helping us amplify our global reach.
We are partnering with hospitals, employers, insurers, care organizations and non-profits to expand care outside of medical centers. When we do that, we know health outcomes for both mothers and their babies can improve. A nurse is the first person to know something is off with a patient. By providing a virtual care team online or through the phone, we can improve adherence and health outcomes for entire families. We are proud to report a 79% adherence rate for mothers attending their healthcare appointments, a 68% adherence rate for lactation and a satisfaction rate of 95%.[4]
[3] March of Dimes. (2018). Nowhere To Go: Maternity Care Deserts Across the U.S. Retrieved from https://www.marchofdimes.org/materials/Nowhere_to_Go_Final.pdf
[4] Now Babies Come With Instructions TM. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2020, from https://www.babyliveadvice.com/
Being awarded the Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge means nurse innovators Sigi and Nicole and their teams will gain access to funding and support with the aim to help move their innovations forward, including grant funding of $50,000 each, mentoring and training opportunities from the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies, and access to the Johnson & Johnson Innovation—JLABS ecosystem, which helps innovators accelerate discovery and get operational support to bring their healthcare solutions to life.
Where are they now? An update on our first Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge Awardees:
Last May, during National Nurses Week 2019, the first two awardees in the Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovation QuickFire Challenge series were announced - Abby Hess, APRN, DNP of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Lauren Wright, MSN, AGNP-BC and CEO of The Natural Nipple. Abby and Lauren each received $50,000 in grant funding and mentorship from the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies. As awardees they were also able to access programming and a number of resources for entrepreneurs from Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JLABS, which helps nurture budding start-ups in a no-strings-attached environment.
Abby and her team gamified the anesthesia induction process for pediatric patients, helping calmly engage children during inhalation induction (breathing anesthesia gases through a mask to fall asleep for surgery.) The award, which included $50,000 in grant funding and mentorship from the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies, helped Abby and her team drive product development forward through supporting clinical testing and optimizing the product for clinical use. They are now preparing to test the newest product version in the clinical setting at Cincinnati Children's Hospital and looking forward to collaborations with other hospitals in the next phase.
Lauren Wright, CEO of The Natural Nipple, has put her resourcefulness to work to help frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic by connecting her manufacturing contacts to U.S. hospitals to help source personal protective equipment (PPE) and sanitizing units that kill the novel coronavirus in eight seconds. The company now has a patent pending for a Breast Milk Derived COVID-19 Biological Therapeutic for Passive Immunity.
Learn more about the Johnson & Johnson Nurses Innovate QuickFire Challenge series and meet past awardees here and follow @JNJNursing on Facebook and Twitter to stay up-to-date on upcoming Challenge opportunities.