HeartLight: Heart-Rate Monitoring for Neonatal Resuscitation

Around one in ten newborns need help breathing after delivery, and a new sensor-packed hat aims to give clinicians a faster, more accurate way to monitor heart rate during those critical moments. Current practice relies on a stethoscope, which is slow—taking one to two minutes to get a reading—and prone to error, often interrupting the resuscitation process. If a baby’s heart rate drops and isn’t corrected quickly, the lack of oxygen can lead to lifelong conditions such as cerebral palsy. The SurePulse optical sensor, already tested on 210 babies, tracks heart rate continuously without physical contact. The team will now integrate that sensor into a single-use hat, so clinicians can resuscitate hands-free, without pausing to listen for a pulse. If the hat works as intended, it could reduce delays and measurement errors during neonatal resuscitation, improving outcomes for the roughly 10% of newborns who need help at birth. The technology is not fundamental science—it is a practical engineering refinement of an existing platform, designed for immediate clinical use. Success would mean a simple, disposable tool that quietly improves a routine but high-stakes medical procedure, giving more babies the best start to life.