Jane Chen: A Warm Embrace That Saves Lives

Susan notes: Thanks to TED for making TED Talks downloadable and embeddable, and for providing the biographical information that goes along with them.

In the developing world, access to incubators is limited by cost and distance, and millions of premature babies die each year. TED Fellow Jane Chen shows an invention that could keep millions of these infants warm -- a design that's safe, portable, low-cost and life-saving.

Jane Chen is the co-founder and CEO of Embrace, a social enterprise that aims to help the millions of vulnerable babies born every year in developing countries through a low-cost infant warmer. Unlike traditional incubators that cost up to $20,000, the Embrace infant warmer costs less than 1% of this price. The device requires no electricity, has no moving parts, is portable and is safe and intuitive to use.

Chen received her Masters in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Prior to her graduate studies, Jane was the Program Director of Chi Heng Foundation, a nonprofit organization that sponsors the education of children affected by AIDS in central China. She was also formerly a management consultant at Monitor Group.

 

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