Sopuruchi Onwuka
A groundbreaking neonatal treatment initiative, JaundiRoom, is offering fresh hope in Nigeria’s battle against preventable jaundice that currently accounts for a significant number of newborn deaths in Nigeria.
The JaundiRoom is developed by Africa’s only researchers at Imperial College of London, Professor Okechukwu Amadi, a comprehensive neonatal jaundice treatment system designed to drastically reduce treatment time, expand access to care and prevent irreversible brain damage among newborns.
Amadi who was a Professor of Medical Technology at the Imo State University, Owerri, is currently a Professor of Bioengineering at the prestigious Imperial College of London. He also holds a non-academic position as the Principal Consultant and CEO at Neonatal Concerns for Africa Organisation.
The JaundiRoom initiative which has been demonstrated in several countries, was launched in Ibadan last week is part of Prof Amadi’s self-assigned devotion to saving millions of newborn babies across the country, the continent and the world.
The JaundiRoom is also the last in the set of four innovations developed by Prof Amadi to resolve preventable deaths associated with challenges that confront newborns especially in underserved communities of the world.
One of Prof Amadi’s innovations, the PoliteCPAC, crafted to provide neonatal respiratory support, won the 2023 Nigeria Prize for Science promoted by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited. Since then, the PoliteCPAC ventilation device has been adopted in most rural areas of the world as most effective treatment for respiratory distress confronting delicate newborns across the world.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Champion Newspapers in Lagos, Prof. Amadi described the JaundiRoom project as the culmination of decades of research aimed at solving the four major causes of preventable neonatal mortality in Nigeria and other low- and middle-income countries.
He identified the challenges as thermal instability in newborns, respiratory distress, unreliable power supply and neonatal jaundice.
According to him, while his earlier innovations addressed newborn temperature regulation, neonatal respiratory support and independent power solutions, the JaundiRoom initiative completes what he described as a comprehensive ecosystem for preventing avoidable newborn deaths.
“This jaundice intervention is actually bigger than the respiratory support innovation that earned the NLNG Nigeria Prize for Science,” he said.
The development has also renewed attention on the critical role of private sector investment in scientific innovation, particularly through the Nigeria Prize for Science established by Nigeria LNG Limited to promote scientific excellence and encourage research-based solutions to national and global challenges.
Since its establishment in 2004, the Nigeria Prize for Science has sought to recognize and reward scientists whose work provides practical solutions to developmental challenges affecting humanity, particularly in Nigeria.
With a prize value of $100,000, the award remains one of Africa’s most prestigious science prizes and has become an important platform for advancing indigenous scientific research and innovation.
Beyond recognizing scientific achievement, Nigeria LNG has also extended practical support to the deployment of healthcare innovations developed by Nigerian scientists.
Following Prof. Amadi’s award-winning work on neonatal respiratory care, Nigeria LNG sponsored the installation of his innovative PoliteHeart Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machines in four major medical centres across Nigeria, helping to improve respiratory care outcomes for premature and critically ill newborns.
Healthcare experts say such interventions demonstrate how strategic private sector investment can bridge critical gaps in Nigeria’s healthcare delivery system, particularly in underserved communities where access to specialized neonatal services remains limited.
Prof. Amadi explained that neonatal jaundice remains one of the leading causes of preventable brain damage and death among newborns in developing countries, especially where treatment facilities are inadequate or unavailable.
He noted that excessive bilirubin accumulation in newborns can lead to permanent neurological injury if not treated effectively within the first week of life.
To address this challenge, he developed the JaundiRoom concept around a highly specialized phototherapy system known as the PoliteUltraLumen, which he described as the most powerful neonatal phototherapy machine currently available.
Unlike conventional phototherapy systems that often require prolonged hospitalization lasting several days, Prof. Amadi said treatment using the JaundiRoom typically takes approximately 19 hours, plus or minus eight hours depending on the severity of the condition.
“The objective was to create a system that would work effectively within the realities of our environment and provide rapid intervention before irreversible damage occurs,” he explained.
According to him, the JaundiRoom is also designed to reduce dependence on unreliable infrastructure and excessive human intervention, thereby improving sustainability in resource-constrained settings.
Prof. Amadi disclosed that he has personally financed the deployment of JaundiRoom facilities across multiple hospitals in Nigeria, including installations in four cardinal medical centres and ten healthcare facilities across southeastern Nigeria.
Some of the facilities, he noted, have operated successfully for nearly two years.
He emphasized that the initiative was conceived primarily as a humanitarian intervention rather than a commercial enterprise.
“My interest is saving lives, not making money,” he said.
The scientist also explained that his broader neonatal intervention strategy includes independent power systems developed specifically for neonatal units in rural communities, helping to ensure uninterrupted operation despite persistent electricity challenges.
He argued that healthcare innovations designed for developing countries must reflect the infrastructural realities of the environments in which they operate.
He made it clear that excessive reliance on imported technologies developed for advanced healthcare systems often limits effectiveness in low-resource settings.
Despite the success of his innovations, Prof. Amadi expressed concern over the limited institutional support available to indigenous medical innovators in Nigeria.
He observed that many locally developed healthcare technologies fail to progress beyond the prototype stage because of inadequate funding, weak policy support and lack of integration into public healthcare systems.
He therefore called for stronger government intervention to scale proven local innovations and improve access to specialized healthcare services in underserved communities.
Former Minister of Trade and Industry, Chief Nike Akande, told Daily Champion that the success of the Nigeria LNG-sponsored science prize model offers important lessons for public policy on how sustained investment in research and innovation can generate practical solutions to pressing national challenges.
She noted that greater collaboration among government institutions, private sector organizations and research institutions could accelerate the development and deployment of locally produced medical technologies capable of transforming healthcare outcomes across Nigeria.
An obstetrician at the Lagos University teaching Hospital who spoke on anonymous terms said Prof. Amadi’s JaundiRoom initiative transcends just a technological breakthrough to amplify the potential of indigenous scientific innovation.
He stressed the need for sustainable institutional funding support for strategic investments in innovations that resolve most persistent healthcare challenges and save millions of newborn lives.
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