Validation of an onsite, easy-to-use chlorine generator (SE Flow) for infection prevention and control in labor wards

Validation of a POC Bilirubin Measurement to Diagnose Neonatal Jaundice and Monitor Phototherapy in Hospitals in Sub-Saharan Africa

This project will build and test a prototype application that streamlines and automates patient, provider and payer transactions across the maternal/newborn EOC. The goal is to pilot the application in Liberia, where the government must overcome operational challenges to engage private providers in the Liberia Health Equity Fund.

PremieBreathe has built a functional infant breathing aid for $450, one tenth the price of commercial models. The device, a humidified high flow nasal cannula (HHFNC), is the gold standard of non-invasive neonatal respiratory care in high-income countries. With the support of Saving Lives at Birth, PremieBreathe will conduct initial trials at Ayder Referral Hospital in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, and identify design, manufacturing, and distribution partners to prepare for scaled production and dissemination.

The project will scale-up distribution of the Lucky Iron Fish: an innovative, affordable, and clinically-proven solution to iron deficiency. The fish have a compliance rate of 90% and reduce the prevalence of iron deficiency by ~50%. We will integrate business, health care and university-based expertise to create a different service delivery and carry out research into the impact of the fish on iron status in women with HIV. We will promote an integrated approach that will change service delivery to some of the poorest people in urban areas including HIV positive women.

The Pratt Pouch, a foilized, polyethylene pouch (similar to a ketchup pouch) designed and proven to safely store NVP doses, offers an innovative way to expand NVP coverage. Integrating this technology into existing services will simplify dosing and ensure all HIV-positive women have access to infant NVP. The easy-to-use pouches will empower women to immediately initiate NVP after delivery and encourage them to deliver in a health facility or bring their infants for postnatal care within 14 days.

We will seek to demonstrate measurable levels of the first inhalable formulation of oxytocin in blood and measurable biological effects of inhalation, all this with no seriously adverse side effects. Success will provide the essential platform for the further steps required to move into a first clinical trial. Our ultimate goal is licensure and distribution in affected areas: providing every mother on the planet with access to a life-saving drug when in labor.

Salt is universally consumed at a constant, predictable level independently of social status. Our approach is to develop innovative technology for incorporating these micronutrients into salt at levels that can have a significant beneficial health effect. Our objective is to develop a stable premix in the laboratory, test its long-term stability in salt, and scale up the process for premix production in pilot scale tests in India.

The NIFTY cup's extended reservoir off the cup lip optimizes efficient milk delivery, and mothers can directly express into the 60-ml cup. The NIFTY cup's soft silicone material protects the infant's mouth from injury. The cup has embossed volume measurements to track intake; is designed to enhance finger and wrist control over milk flow; and is made with quick-drying, UV- and heat-resistant, durable, affordable silicone that can be boiled for sterilization. Our project aims to 1) generate an evidence base by validating the NIFTY cup in a hospital in Ethiopia and 2) shape the sub-Saharan Africa market by identifying a commercialization partner and developing a go-to market strategy and global advocacy plan.

UNICEF, together with the Department of Health (DOH) and PhilHealth collaborated to develop a national health insurance benefit package for prematurity and small babies launched in late 2016. The project seeks to catalyze the readiness of government hospitals to be contracted for the special health financing package.

We will adapt and scale the existing Mobile WACh - a human-computer hybrid communication system, connects women and newborns to care during the most at-risk period, bringing a virtual provider into the home - platform, which has demonstrated efficacy for maternal and child outcomes, to target the problems of neonatal mortality and unmet need for family planning. We will utilize the strengths of our collaborative research partners to evaluate this intervention with plans to scale into electronic medical records (EMR) country-wide. Mobile WACh offers benefits over existing SMS messaging because it provides personalized support.

Measurement of Impact of Hemafuse, an autologous blood transfusion device

Drawing on 10 years of experience developing and delivering essential newborn care training, this project will develop 3D games using an iterative co-design process in UK and Kenya so it excites users and addresses needs and preferences. This project will explore incentives for learning and develop data capture tools to understand who is playing as well as where and when they are playing. This project will also design a test of the effectiveness of our training in Kenya, explore how to extend the approach to maternal care and plan for dissemination and testing.

FREO2 Solar: Battery-free solar-powered oxygen system for small health facilities

Evaluation of an Infusion Monitoring Device as a cost-effective way to increase safe access to oxytocin and magesium sulfate

The Pratt Pouch, a foilized, polyethylene pouch (similar to a ketchup pouch) designed and proven to safely store NVP doses, offers an innovative way to expand NVP coverage. The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and its partners propose to introduce and scale up the Pratt Pouch in antenatal care, delivery, and postnatal care services in Uganda. Integrating this technology into existing services will simplify dosing and ensure all HIV-positive women have access to infant NVP. The easy-to-use pouches will empower women to immediately initiate NVP after delivery and encourage them to deliver in a health facility or bring their infants for postnatal care within 14 days.

Often faced with financial, nutritional and political insecurities, the majority of women struggle to care for their own and their children's health. To address this, we developed a peer-support model that groups pregnant women together in the same community to receive maternal and child health services, called Chama cha MamaToto (chamas). Central to our approach is the integration of health, social and financial literacy education with a savings/loans program. Having demonstrated feasibility and sustainability of the program through an earlier Saving Lives at Birth grant, we now aim to validate the success of this intervention in a new site. Implementing chamas in a population of 800,000 over 2 years, we aim to decrease maternal (MMR), perinatal (PNR), and newborn (NMR) mortality rates by 30%.

The Augmented Infant Resuscitator (AIR) empowers health workers to achieve and maintain effective ventilation. It provides intuitive real-time, actionable feedback to birth attendants during ventilation. With [email protected] funding, the team will complete the Product Realization Process (PRP) in partnership with Philips Healthcare vital for the global commercialization of the AIR training device. The team will demonstrate resultant impact on skills acquisition, retention and newborn outcomes.

Save the Children proposes an affordable and exclusive point-of-care diagnostic device for accurate measurement and interpretation of key vital signs (oxygen saturation, respiratory rate and temperature) among young infants (0-59 days) and children (2-59 months). It is equipped with a unique universal pulse oximeter sensor. The device will improve the quality of pneumonia case management and possible serious bacterial infections at community and health facility levels in low-resource settings.

To increase health-system capacity to prevent newborn deaths using evidence-based measures, Partners In Health has developed the All Babies Count (ABC) model, an intensive 18-month change acceleration process. The ABC model - instead of focusing on a single change strategy - creates sustainable impact by re-orienting the culture of the health system to continuous quality improvement (QI). The ABC model: (i) equips health workers with essential supplies; (ii) provides on-site, regular clinical mentorship to improve delivery of evidence-based interventions; and (iii) launches learning collaboratives to promote data utilization for continuous improvement.