Hope for Honduras
The RIT Hope for Honduras initiative aims to support efforts to reduce infant mortality by improving access to quality medical care. At the heart of the initiative is a collaboration with in-country partner, Hospital Escuela, Honduras’ largest public hospital. This hospital accounts for the highest number of births annually and houses a specialized neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for critical care. Originally designed in 1969 to facilitate 7,000 births per year, it accommodated over 16,466 live births in 2015. With birth rates on the rise, due to a growing youth population, the hospital anticipates the birth rate to exceed 20,000 in the next few years. Current spatial constraints and limited medical equipment severely limits the hospital’s care giving abilities which contributes to the high mortality rate.
Hospital Escuela, located in the capital city Tegucigalpa, is the national receiving center, accepting critically ill newborns from rural clinics and local hospitals from a majority of the country. Transportation proves especially challenging as there is not a structured ambulance system in Honduras with a dedicated neonatal transport vehicle. Newborns are transported, with other patients, to Hospital Escuela with limited to no caregiving during intra-transport. It is not uncommon for infants to die in transit or soon after arrival to Hospital Escuela.
The RIT Hope for Honduras Initiative began with a collaboration between RIT’s interior design program and the not for profit organization, Little Angels of Honduras (LAH), to prepare a specification package with renderings for their proposed addition to Hospital Escuela. The intent was to expand the existing NICU facilities and include a Skin to Skin Incubation Training Center. Skin to Skin Incubation also known as “Kangaroo Mother Care,” is a viable alternative that utilizes a mother’s body heat and biorhythms, when incubators are not available, to keep premature babies at an optimum temperature for survival. Skin to Skin Incubation has proven to not only sustain life but contribute to thriving. Currently, in the country of Honduras, only three medical personnel are trained in skin to skin incubation care, all of whom practice out of Hospital Escuela.
While developing the initial interior design proposal it became clear that if we were thinking holistically our role as interior designers was much more expansive. The RIT Hope for Honduras initiative, directed by Prof. Golden, considers the implications of broader public health access technology solutions. The initiative invigorated faculty-student, multidisciplinary interest across the RIT campus and a STEAM partnership of design (interior, industrial, graphic, visual media) and engineering (electrical, mechanical, biomedical) formed. In October of 2017, students traveled to Honduras for five days on a Global Studies International Research Expedition with Prof. Golden to inform the design projects and strengthen relationships with in-country partners. The overarching objective of the initiative is to establish a viable, equitable model of medical care for critically ill newborns to reduce infant mortality and improve the environments and experience of not only the patients and families but of the caregivers. Today there are over nine project teams working tirelessly, at various stages of design, development and implementation to realize innovative solutions for reducing infant mortality in the country of Honduras.
Hospital Escuela, located in the capital city Tegucigalpa, is the national receiving center, accepting critically ill newborns from rural clinics and local hospitals from a majority of the country. Transportation proves especially challenging as there is not a structured ambulance system in Honduras with a dedicated neonatal transport vehicle. Newborns are transported, with other patients, to Hospital Escuela with limited to no caregiving during intra-transport. It is not uncommon for infants to die in transit or soon after arrival to Hospital Escuela.
The RIT Hope for Honduras Initiative began with a collaboration between RIT’s interior design program and the not for profit organization, Little Angels of Honduras (LAH), to prepare a specification package with renderings for their proposed addition to Hospital Escuela. The intent was to expand the existing NICU facilities and include a Skin to Skin Incubation Training Center. Skin to Skin Incubation also known as “Kangaroo Mother Care,” is a viable alternative that utilizes a mother’s body heat and biorhythms, when incubators are not available, to keep premature babies at an optimum temperature for survival. Skin to Skin Incubation has proven to not only sustain life but contribute to thriving. Currently, in the country of Honduras, only three medical personnel are trained in skin to skin incubation care, all of whom practice out of Hospital Escuela.
While developing the initial interior design proposal it became clear that if we were thinking holistically our role as interior designers was much more expansive. The RIT Hope for Honduras initiative, directed by Prof. Golden, considers the implications of broader public health access technology solutions. The initiative invigorated faculty-student, multidisciplinary interest across the RIT campus and a STEAM partnership of design (interior, industrial, graphic, visual media) and engineering (electrical, mechanical, biomedical) formed. In October of 2017, students traveled to Honduras for five days on a Global Studies International Research Expedition with Prof. Golden to inform the design projects and strengthen relationships with in-country partners. The overarching objective of the initiative is to establish a viable, equitable model of medical care for critically ill newborns to reduce infant mortality and improve the environments and experience of not only the patients and families but of the caregivers. Today there are over nine project teams working tirelessly, at various stages of design, development and implementation to realize innovative solutions for reducing infant mortality in the country of Honduras.
Our Research
Hypothesis
Human Centered Design (HCD) is a participatory process, actively involving community members in identifying local assets and resources that can be used to address local challenges. At a community level, HCD places emphasis on fostering agency and self-reliance as tenets, and thus can be used to foster global citizenship in our university students. Under tutelage of their faculty and through their interactions with strategic NGO community partners, student researchers will develop a deeper understanding of the root causes of challenges facing under resourced economies, and in turn will develop the capacity to engage in HCD as a method for problem solving. Students will gain skills in their areas of study and be exposed to the collaborative nature of a project that extends beyond the classroom. This student centric experience prepares students to become global citizens dedicated to addressing the challenges that impact the sustainability of humanity and the environment. Along the way, it is believed that together, they will generate innovative solutions with potential to become socially relevant, scalable sustainable micro-enterprises addressing the global development challenge of reducing infant mortality.
Implementation + Longevity
The RIT Hope for Honduras initiatives are currently designed for implementation with Hospital Escuela and their in country partners where we will substantiate their value and impact before scaling up to support other regions. While our focus is currently in the capital city and surrounding rural regions of Honduras, all activities are repeatable and scalable for greater global enactment. The realization of the technology and design projects developed through Hope for Honduras have long range research capacity with the potential to last decades and grow to include multidisciplinary academic partnerships in country with international dissemination at renowned venues and in publication.
Human Centered Design (HCD) is a participatory process, actively involving community members in identifying local assets and resources that can be used to address local challenges. At a community level, HCD places emphasis on fostering agency and self-reliance as tenets, and thus can be used to foster global citizenship in our university students. Under tutelage of their faculty and through their interactions with strategic NGO community partners, student researchers will develop a deeper understanding of the root causes of challenges facing under resourced economies, and in turn will develop the capacity to engage in HCD as a method for problem solving. Students will gain skills in their areas of study and be exposed to the collaborative nature of a project that extends beyond the classroom. This student centric experience prepares students to become global citizens dedicated to addressing the challenges that impact the sustainability of humanity and the environment. Along the way, it is believed that together, they will generate innovative solutions with potential to become socially relevant, scalable sustainable micro-enterprises addressing the global development challenge of reducing infant mortality.
Implementation + Longevity
The RIT Hope for Honduras initiatives are currently designed for implementation with Hospital Escuela and their in country partners where we will substantiate their value and impact before scaling up to support other regions. While our focus is currently in the capital city and surrounding rural regions of Honduras, all activities are repeatable and scalable for greater global enactment. The realization of the technology and design projects developed through Hope for Honduras have long range research capacity with the potential to last decades and grow to include multidisciplinary academic partnerships in country with international dissemination at renowned venues and in publication.
Visit our research page to learn more about the projects underway in this important initiative to reduce infant mortality in the country of Honduras!
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Listen
Episode 5: Little Angels of Honduras. Vignelli Center for Design Studies, Mitch Goldstein, October 03, 2018. https://www.rit.edu/vignellicenter/podcasts
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Intersections: The RIT Podcast Ep. 31: Hope for Honduras. RIT Press, Rich Kiley and Jacob Kaucher, February 26, 2020. https://soundcloud.com/rittigers/hope-for-honduras
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Golden, M. (Author) and Smith, J. (co-presenter), “A Radical Collaboration: Using Revit and Fusion 360 to Design a Neonatal Ambulance,” Autodesk University, Las Vegas Nevada Aug 15, 2018.
https://www.autodesk.com/autodesk-university/class/Radical-Collaboration-Assimilating-Fusion-360-and-Revit-Design-Neonatal-Ambulance-2018 |
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Download the Hope for Honduras Brochure for a quick reference guide to the projects undergoing research and development at RIT. |