BirthweighIII.jpg
FA info icon.svg Angle down icon.svg Medical equipment data
Health topic Child mortality
Health classification Diagnosis
FA info icon.svg Angle down icon.svg Project data
Location Washington state, United States
Status Commercialized
OKH Manifest Download

Problem being addressed[edit | edit source]

In the absence of appropriate interventions, low birth weight infants are at increased risk for illness, developmental delay and death. Identifying low birth weight children in resource-poor settings requires an inexpensive, accurate and portable scale that can be understood with minimal literacy or training.

Detailed description of the solution[edit | edit source]

The BIRTHweigh III is a portable handheld non-electronic scale that uses a plastic spring to gauge low birth weight status among newborns. Based on WHO cutoff weights and using color codes, the scale categorizes newborns into normal (>2500 g) birth weight, low (2000-2499 g) birth weight, and very low (<2000 g) birth weight. The three-way classification also has applications for correct dosing of antibiotics to newborns.

Designed by[edit | edit source]

  • Designed by: Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), PO Box 900922 Seattle, WA 98109
  • Manufacturing: PATH is working to identify manufacturers in the countries where the technology is most needed.

Implementation[edit | edit source]

A licensed version is currently for sale worldwide through Unicef under the name BeBeWay.

Funding Source[edit | edit source]

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) provides public funding. Save the Children provides philanthropic funding.

References[edit | edit source]

Peer-reviewed publication[edit | edit source]

Darmstadt GL, Kumar V, Shearer JC et al. (2007.) Validation of accuracy and community acceptance of the BIRTHweigh III scale for categorizing newborn weight in rural India. Journal of Perinatology 27:602-608. Link available here.

Mullany LC, Darmstadt GL, Coffey P et al. (2006.) A low cost, colour coded, hand held spring scale accurately categorises birth weight in low resource settings. Archives of Disease in Childhood 91(5): 410–413. Link available here.

Other internally generated reports[edit | edit source]

PATH. (2008.) Technology solutions for global health: BIRTHweigh III. PDF available here.

FA info icon.svg Angle down icon.svg Page data
Part of Global Health Medical Device Compendium
SDG SDG03 Good health and well-being, SDG09 Industry innovation and infrastructure
Authors Eva Shiu
License CC-BY-SA-3.0
Language English (en)
Related 0 subpages, 3 pages link here
Impact 387 page views
Created January 21, 2012 by Eva Shiu
Modified November 22, 2022 by Irene Delgado
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