DHFL Foundation: Community Hypothermia Monitoring in Palghar

Overview

Thanks to support from the DHFL Foundation, facilitated through the social impact platform Samhita, BEMPU implemented the TempWatch hypothermia monitoring bracelet in rural areas of Palghar, Maharashtra — in partnership with Aroehan, a local NGO focused on child health and nutrition, and its network of ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) community health workers.

The program equipped low-birth-weight newborns with TempWatch for continuous hypothermia monitoring for 30 days after hospital discharge, alongside a purpose-built KMC diary (shown below) used by nurses to train caregivers and by families to log hypothermia episodes and kangaroo care hours at home.

The program's results were published as a peer-reviewed study — "Usability and acceptability of a hypothermia monitoring device in a community setting" (Mukane et al., 2020) — which found that 57% of the 50 enrolled low-birth-weight infants triggered a hypothermia alert at least once a week, and that weight gain by day 28 was significantly higher than at enrollment (p=0.01). All participating mothers and ASHA workers reported the device was useful and encouraged more consistent Kangaroo Mother Care.

Project Activities

• Enrollment of 50 low-birth-weight infants (<2500g) at Jawahar Cottage Hospital, Palghar, with 28-day home follow-up
• Distribution of TempWatch bracelets with a bilingual (Hindi) patient diary for logging hypothermia alerts and KMC hours
• Training of ASHA community health workers on hypothermia recognition, device use, and KMC counseling
• Structured exit interviews with mothers and ASHA workers to assess usability and acceptability