April 2012: Lifebox has launched a campaign called 'Make it Zero' to close the global gap in pulse oximetry (77,000 operating rooms don't have a pulse oximeter). The non-profit has sent Lifeboxes to Tonga, Tanzania, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Eritrea. In Sierra Leone, one was supplied for every operating room in the country.
The American Society of Anesthetists launched a campaign to support Lifebox in Chicago in November 2011. The Department of Anesthesiology in University of Florida raised $33,700 to donate over a hundred Lifebox Oximeters.
Lifebox
The Lifebox Pulse Oximeter is a non-invasive medical device that checks blood oxygen levels and sounds an alarm when dangerous levels are detected. A key component of the WHO Safe Surgery Checklist, oximeters are used in an operating theatre, emergency, and neonatal units to prevent the risk of brain damage, heart failure, and death. They are commonly used to treat pneumonia and preventing neonatal blindness. The Lifebox Pulse Oximeter is robust, flexible, and operates with a rechargeable battery so that the device can be powered when electricity goes out.
It is accurate to +/1 2% in the clinical range SpO2 (oxygen saturation). The rotating screen displays the data in a waveform graph, and a beep marks every pulse beat. It is the only pulse oximeter on the market to meet all of WHOs specifications. Because it is compatible with generic probes and batteries, it is more cost efficient than other pulse oximeters on the market. The device is sold through the Lifebox website to practitioners working in low and lower-middle income countries or serving a population of at least 20% low resource patients.
