Prof Hypolite Amadi Wins $100k NLNG Nigerian Prize for Science for his research on solving breathing challenges of newborns.
His solution to breathing challenges of new babies stood out from 100 entries, a long list of 28 and a shortlist of four to emerge the winner of the $100,000 NLNG Nigerian Prize for Science on Friday, 13 October 2023, at the Grand Awards Night at the Expo Centre of Eko Hotels & Suites, Lagos.
Professor Hypolite Amadi’s “Low-cost Respiratory Technologies for Keeping the Nigerian Neonates Alive” was “the most outstanding entry in this year’s Nigerian Prize for Science” as it showcased three innovations to save the lives of infants by delivering oxygen cheaply and affordably to them.
Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Nigeria Prize for Science, Prof Bart Nnaji, said the three innovative technologies are the non-invasive neonatal ventilator named the bubble PoliteC-PAP for continuous positive airway pressure ventilation of babies with meagre birth weight, an oxygen delivery blender system that allows for safe delivery of oxygen without the danger of toxicity and the oxygen splitter system that allows using a shared oxygen source to eight babies simultaneously where piped oxygen is not available.
President Bola Tinubu was one of the earliest to commend Prof Amadi. His innovation “has significantly reduced neonatal care costs and saved lives in verified hospitals adopting the solar-powered neonatal ventilator.
“The President commends Professor Amadi for leveraging his extensive background in medical engineering and technology, with a particular focus on affordable medical systems, for the betterment, progress, and benefit of Nigerians and humanity”, Chief Press Secretary Ajuri Ngelale stated.
Prof Amadi danced excitedly at the Awards Ceremony during group photography with the two other award winners on the night, Dr Obari Gomba for the Literature Prize and Dr Eyoh Etim for Literary Criticism. The award was a victory for 25 years of focused research in infant mortality. He notes, however, that the winning work represents only 23 per cent of his research output in the area.
Amadi is a Medical Engineering and Technology professor at Imperial College, London, and the Principal Consultant at Neonatal Concerns for Africa charitable organisation. He is a scientific researcher in orthopaedics, biomechanics and neonatal interventions and procedures.
With the PoliteheartCPAP machine, Amadi explains, “A distressed newborn that cannot breathe on its own is assisted by latching its nostril to the machine through a nasal prong and cannula. The machine has sensors to measure and report the neonate’s oxygen saturation levels. It mixes appropriate air + oxygen and delivers this to the baby using a water column to control the desired positive pressure during this process. This machine essentially operates the breathing process for the neonate to keep it alive.”
Amadi said his entry for the NLNG Science Award is in the package of his Neonatal Respiratory Support Technologies”, one of seven packages he created in 25 years of neonatal research for resource-constrained settings. “This is a group of three technologies that work together to assist a distressed newborn baby to breathe for survival.”
Prof Amadi spoke on his motivation. “I began my neonatal project in 1996 with a clear picture of my endgame. My dream was to work as fast as I could to attempt to achieve the total description of the course of high neonatal mortality in Nigeria, providing possible interventions and mitigations showcasing its proof-of-concept and declaring the end of this wherever my solutions could be adopted.”
Nigeria buries 846 babies daily and has the world’s highest indices of neonatal mortality rate. Amadi said cost was a significant consideration in designing his innovation.
“I needed to make it a device that the Nigerian Naira could buy. Hence, the selection of appropriate and affordable material components was a challenge. I also needed to create a system that must remain reliable despite unreliable grid power in Nigeria. Atmospheric air supply was an inevitable essential consumable. I needed to create a system that could continue to run after an accidental shutdown of a compressor. I needed to create a system that would not need too much mental power to operate. The system must be simple enough to be operated by a medical assistant in a typical Nigerian primary healthcare facility.”
The NLNG Science Prize Board declared that Prof Amadi’s products have shown much promise in advancing medical practice in low-income countries such as Nigeria. Doctors are using them in various hospitals across Nigeria.
“PoliteCPAP is an improvement on the existing device as it provides access to ventilators and oxygen delivery simultaneously to neonates at a highly reduced cost of N750,000 against N6.5 million for the existing device with comparable and better efficiency. One of the products, the PoliteCPAP, caused a drastic reduction in the price of the existing brand (Fisher and Paykle model), underscoring the competitive economic optimum of the devices and their commercial potentials.”
The Nigerian Prize for Science 2023 laureate declares: “My work impacts every nook and cranny of Nigeria. In any family where there is a cry of a baby in Nigeria, my work impacts.
“I want to ride on the back of NLNG to let Nigerians know we have huge problems to solve. The fact that Nigeria buries more babies than any other country every day is a big shame already. Yet, we have intellectuals and academics in Nigeria. It is either Nigerians look inwards and use solutions that we can manage, solutions that are not foreign to us and solve our problems, rather than chasing developed countries all over the place. If you empower an African mind, he will create a better solution to solve his problem.”
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