Awards

Ifeoluwa Olokode of Helium Health in Nigeria will develop a digital antenatal risk stratification tool to determine the risk of maternal mortality for pregnant women in Nigeria and link them to appropriate care services to reduce maternal death rates. Nigeria has one of the highest burdens of maternal mortality, with the biggest driver being a delay in the decision to seek health care. They will develop the stratification tool to incorporate patient demographic, behavioral, and obstetric clinical information into existing models to predict antenatal risk levels and communicate them to patients to aid earlier decision making. The tool will be adapted to different demographics, such as women with no education, and integrated into an existing digital patient healthcare platform. It will also connect women with financial support services. They will implement their tool across Lagos, Kano, and Akwa Ibom states over twelve months to demonstrate proof of concept.

Augustino Hellar of Prime Health Initiative Tanzania will develop a machine learning algorithm for the early detection of high-risk pregnancies and integrate it into an existing mobile health application to help reduce maternal mortality in Tanzania. The existing application is being used by health care workers across 23,000 households in Tanzania’s Geita Region to track health during pregnancy and provide health education via SMS. They will build upon this application to develop a digital health platform called Mlinde Mama that includes an interactive graphical user interface for expectant mothers to record and access their own health data and communicate with other group members. The machine learning algorithm component will be designed to enable the early detection and stratification of pregnancy-related risk factors based on patient and clinical data and will refer high-risk patients to district health centers.