MEDICAL

INCUBATOR
GROUP 8
MEDICAL INCUBATOR
Definition
In biotechnology, an apparatus in which environmental conditions can be set and
controlled.
Incubators are used in microbiology for culturing (growing) bacteria and other
microorganisms. Incubators in tissue culture rooms are used for culturing stem
cells, lymphocytes, skin fibroblasts, and other types of cells. And in the hospital
nursery and newborn intensive care unit (NICU), incubators serve to house and
maintain premature and ill infants.
Incubators are a device that provides sufficient warmth to the body to maintain the
desired temperature. Premature babies have very little fat around them and lose
heat rapidly to the surrounding environment.
The invention of the incubator in 1880 ignited a dramatic outpouring of popular and
professional excitement over the prospect of reducing premature infant mortality.
Yet the technology itself progressed slowly and fitfully over the next 50 years. The
story is worth examining not so much from the standpoint of technological
progress but from the perspective of how responsibility for the newborn shifted
from mothers to obstetricians and eventually pediatricians. It also illustrates how
the history of technology involves more than invention. The invention of the
incubator itself was less significant than the development of a system to support
the device.
USES/PURPOSE
The incubator plays an important role in maintaining the
small environment of the desired temperature which
minimizes heat loss. Once the heat loss is reduced, the
nutrition given to premature babies will be utilized in organ
development and weight gain.
They are insulated enclosures that are thermostatically
regulated to maintain a constant temperature. Hot air is
circulated over racks or shelves containing the Petri dishes,
flasks, or other cultural media. In medicine, such incubators
are used to identify disease-causing microorganisms taken
from patients.
INVENTED
Dr. Fe del Mundo pioneered numerous innovations throughout
her more than a 70-year medical career. A committed
humanitarian, del Mundo dedicated her life to the health of the
world’s children.

The first Asian woman admitted into Harvard, she pursued

graduate degrees in America after receiving her medical
degree from the University of the Philippines. She returned to
the Philippines during World War II, and established a
children’s branch of a Japanese internment camp, and
directed the Manila Children’s Hospital.

Del Mundo revolutionized Philippine medicine, making major

breakthroughs in immunization and in the treatment of
jaundice, and providing healthcare to thousands of poor
families. She is credited with studies that led to the invention
of the incubator and jaundice relieving device. Her methods,
like the BRAT diet for curing diarrhea, have spread throughout
the world and saved millions.
 MEET THE TEAM

PASPIE, RICCI JANE

PEDRGAGOSA, JULIANNE HYACINTH
PULALO, ALFAHAD
RABANAL, CRESMIE
BS ENE 2A
THANK YOU :)