New York City-based Neopenda is on a noble mission to use modern mobile technology to improve newborn survival in the developing world.

The company has developed a sensor-laden baby hat that can measure the four most important vital signs for newborns: heart rate, respiratory rate, blood oxygen saturation and temperature. Co-founders Sona Shah and Teresa Cauvel, who both hold a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from Columbia University, are passionate about using technology to serve low-resource and vulnerable populations.

The Neopenda device is designed to have the wearable ease of a Fitbit, with the medical accuracy of finger clip pulse oximeters typically found in hospitals. It is safe for newborns, and once it’s produced at scale – it could potentially save a newborn’s life for less than $1. Also, it should be suited for the tough environment of a hospital in Uganda.

The typical scenario envisions hats on up to 24 babies in a single room that send the vital sign data wirelessly to a tablet running Neopenda’s software. From there, the doctor or nurse will be alerted when something is wrong with one of the babies. The app will display the information of multiple babies in real-time, and can generate trend plots and export patient histories.

Neopenda can’t do this alone though, and has thus turned to a crowdfunding website Kickstarter where it’s seeking to raise $40,000. By pledging $75, you can cover the cost of deploying and testing a Neopenda, and will even receive story of how the hat you sponsored was used to care for a baby during the pilot study. Nice…