Racing Car Technology To Help Critically Sick Babies

The F1’s sister team,  Williams Advanced Engineering, have developed a state of the art 'pod’ to transport critically ill newborns using technology created for the racing car industry.

Transporting sick newborns is a tricky business. The babies must be protected from sound and vibrations whilst remaining at a constant temperature and being monitored and tended to by medical staff. Whilst incubators have previously been used to achieve this, they present their own problems as they are heavy, unwieldy and require an electricity source.   

The new 'pods’ are heavily padded, lightweight boxes made from carbon fiber with clear lids for monitoring. They weigh just 9.1kg and can withstand a 20G impact in the case of a traffic accident. Each pod currently costs around £5,000 GBP which is around $6,500

The pods are initially being used by the Children's Acute Transport Service (CATS) of the Great Ormond Street hospital in London, but there are hopes that they will be rolled out more widely.