The Bambi Belt becomes standard of care: a world first for premature babies

Máxima Medical Center is the first hospital in the world to adopt the Bambi Belt as routine care for its most fragile patients — a milestone that has been years in the making.

Today, Máxima Medical Center in Veldhoven announced that the Bambi Belt will be used as standard of care for all babies born before 29 weeks of pregnancy. For the first time anywhere in the world, a hospital is replacing traditional adhesive electrodes with wireless neonatal monitoring as a matter of routine — not as part of a study, but as the new normal. For Bambi Medical, this is the moment everyone has been working towards.

What standard of care means

Reaching standard of care is the ultimate validation for a medical innovation. It means that after years of research and rigorous clinical evaluation, care teams have concluded that this is simply the best way to treat their patients. For the most premature babies in the NICU — born as early as 24 weeks, with skin so delicate it can be damaged by an adhesive plaster — that designation carries real weight. The Bambi Belt replaces sticky electrodes and wired leads with a soft, flexible band worn around the baby's torso. The result is less skin irritation, fewer disturbances, and more freedom of movement for the baby. Parents can hold their child more easily, with no wires to worry about. And care teams get richer, continuous data on breathing effort and vital signs — information that adhesive electrodes simply cannot provide. This is not a marginal improvement. For the smallest, most vulnerable patients, gentler care and better information can make a meaningful difference.

Fabio Bambang Oetomo, Founder & CEO

"I am extremely proud that we have made it this far. When I started the company ten years ago, I had no idea of the full complexity of building a medical device company from the ground up. I am so grateful that I found strongly motivated people with deep domain expertise to join my father and me on this journey. Standard of care at Máxima Medical Center closes a circle. The invention was made by my father within these same walls — and now it is being used every day to improve the quality of care for premature babies. I am confident this is just the beginning of the Bambi Belt being adopted by hospitals across Europe and beyond. I want to thank our team, our production partners, and our clinical partners. We got here together."

Prof. Dr. Sidarto Bambang Oetomo, Founder & Chief Medical Officer

"As a neonatologist, I spent years at Máxima Medical Center watching how hard it was to monitor the tiniest babies without causing them distress. That frustration is what led to the invention. But an invention sitting in a research paper changes nothing — it has to reach the bedside. What makes me most proud is that it was my son Fabio who convinced me that we had to start a company to make that happen. Without his drive and belief, this technology would never have left the university. Seeing the Bambi Belt become standard of care in the hospital where it was born is more than I could have hoped for."

The journey

The Bambi Belt traces its origins to research that began at Máxima Medical Center and TU Eindhoven in 2010. Prof. Bambang Oetomo, then a practising neonatologist, led the development of the first version of the technology. Bambi Medical was founded to take that research through clinical validation, regulatory certification, and — ultimately — into the hands of the care teams who need it.

Sixteen years after that first idea, the Bambi Belt is now certified, commercially available, and deployed as standard of care in the hospital where it was conceived.

Read the full announcement

Máxima Medical Center has published a full press release on this milestone.

About Bambi Medical

Bambi Medical is a medical technology company based in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, dedicated to improving the quality of care for premature babies in the NICU. The company has developed the Bambi Belt — a wireless neonatal monitoring device that measures heart rate, ECG and apneas using diaphragmatic electromyography (dEMG), without the need for adhesive electrodes. Founded by neonatologist Prof. Dr. Sidarto Bambang Oetomo and his son Fabio Bambang Oetomo, Bambi Medical has been working, with its partners, over the last ten years on developing and clinically validating the Bambi Belt solution. The Bambi Belt is CE certified under EU MDR, and Bambi Medical holds ISO 13485 certification. The company is actively expanding its clinical and commercial partnerships across Europe.

Bambi Medical is committed to setting a new standard in neonatal monitoring — combining clinical rigour, regulatory excellence, and human-centred design to improve outcomes for the world's most vulnerable patients.