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The Contactless Milk Depot-Pioneering Round-the-Clock Human Milk Donation
Pooja Agarwal Jayagobi1,2,3,4, Chengsi Ong5, Cynthia Pui Chan Pang6
1Duke-NUS Medical School, KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Singapore.
Summary
A new 24/7 contactless milk depot enhances donor convenience and milk bank resilience. This system ensures secure, round-the-clock access for milk deposits, improving infant nutrition supply.
Area of Science:
- Neonatal care
- Public health initiatives
- Biomedical engineering
Background:
- The KK Human Milk Bank supplies pasteurized donor human milk to vulnerable infants in Singapore.
- Previous milk donation processes were restricted to office hours, causing inconvenience and limiting timely access.
- The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these issues due to hospital entry limitations and viral exposure concerns.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a contactless, 24-hour milk depot for secure frozen milk deposits.
- To enhance accessibility and supply chain resilience for donor human milk.
Main Methods:
- Designed a custom multi-compartment freezer-locker system prioritizing safety, security, cost-effectiveness, and accessibility.
- Implemented features including PIN access, CCTV surveillance, and real-time temperature monitoring with automated alerts.
- Strategically located the depot for continuous 24-hour accessibility.
Main Results:
- Launched a system with 12 independent freezer compartments on November 14, 2022, ensuring secure, traceable milk deposits.
- The system maintains frozen storage conditions and provides 24/7 donor access.
- Achieved 100% user satisfaction among depot users.
Conclusions:
- The freezer-locker milk depot offers a secure, contactless, and continuously accessible solution for donor milk donations.
- This innovation improves donor convenience and strengthens operational resilience.
- Ensures an uninterrupted milk supply, particularly during service disruptions like pandemics.
