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Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

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Grand Challenges is a family of initiatives fostering innovation to solve key global health and development problems. Each initiative is an experiment in the use of challenges to focus innovation on making an impact. Individual challenges address some of the same problems, but from differing perspectives.

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Validation Testing of Novel Multi-Use Intrauterine Device Inserter in Bangladesh

Shuchi KhuranaBioceptive, Inc.New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Grand Challenges for Development
Saving Lives at Birth
1 Oct 2015

Bioceptive aims to expand access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) for the estimated 222 million women around the world with an unmet need for modern family planning resources. The discreet intrauterine device (IUD) is one of the most applicable LARC methods for global use due to its long term of use, high efficacy, and minimal user effort. However, IUD access is frequently limited because the insertion procedure is complicated and only carried out by highly trained physicians. Bioceptive has developed a novel, reusable, sterilizable IUD inserter that makes the procedure simpler and intuitive and allows any healthcare worker to confidently insert an IUD with minimal training, thus using improved technology to overcome existing barriers to service delivery.

Microneedle Patch for Tetanus Toxoid Vaccination

Ioanna SkountzouEmory UniversityAtlanta, Georgia, United States
Grand Challenges for Development
Saving Lives at Birth
1 Oct 2015

Our goal is to engineer thermostable microneedle (MN) patches to deliver tetanus vaccine. Instead of expecting pregnant women from remote areas to travel far for vaccination, we propose to provide microneedle patches designed to be applied to skin like a skin plaster. Their small size, and lack of vaccine reconstitution, improves on standard practice. MNs are formulated to dissolve releasing the vaccine quickly, with no biohazard sharp waste.

Emergency Aerial Delivery of Blood and Life-Saving Medicines to Mothers in Rural Tanzania for Less Than $10: The Stork Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Delivery System

Zacharia MtemaIfakara Health InstituteIfakara, Tanzania
Grand Challenges for Development
Saving Lives at Birth
1 Oct 2015

Lack of fast, affordable delivery of blood profoundly restricts the number of lifesaving transfusions performed in the Dodoma region. We will use an autonomous Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) called Stork to transport screened and typed blood from a blood bank in Dodoma to peripheral health facilities, on-demand. In many cases, ground transport of blood would either be impossible or too costly using traditional means. Stork can already deliver over 1kg over 75km in less than 45 minutes at a cost of $10, outperforming all known alternatives.

Nanobiosym Pilot Validation Study of Gene-RADAR Nanotechnology Platform Point-of-Care for Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV in Rwanda

Anita GoelNanobiosym, IncCambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Grand Challenges for Development
Saving Lives at Birth
1 Oct 2015

In collaboration with the Rwandan Ministry of Health National Research Laboratory, and our on the ground implementing partners, Nanobiosym will reduce HIV related deaths in infants by scaling up access to its novel POC nanodiagnostic platform by validating Nanobiosym's proprietary Point-of-Care Gene-RADAR diagnostic platform's ability to measure HIV positive mothers' viral load thereby ensuring they are responding to ART and reducing their chances of transmitting HIV to their child in-utero, at birth, or during the breastfeeding period.

BiliSpec: Low-Cost, Point-of-Care Bilirubin Measurement Device to Diagnose Neonatal Jaundice and Monitor Phototherapy

Rebecca Richards-KortumRice UniversityHouston, Texas, United States
Grand Challenges for Development
Saving Lives at Birth
1 Oct 2015

Our idea is to develop BiliSpec, a bilirubin monitoring device with a per-test cost of less than $0.10. BiliSpec includes: (1) a lateral-flow device to separate serum from whole blood in under 30 seconds and (2) a battery powered reader to measure light transmission through the separated serum on the strip and display the bilirubin concentration. We estimate our device could prevent the deaths of approximately ninety-thousand neonates who die every year due to lack of access to effective treatment and monitoring for neonatal jaundice in low-resource settings.

Phase I Trial: Safety and Feasibility Study of the Odon Device for Assisted Vaginal Delivery

Mercedes BonetWorld Health OrganizationGeneva, Switzerland
Grand Challenges for Development
Saving Lives at Birth
1 Oct 2015

The objective of the study is to evaluate the safety and feasibility of the Odon device, a low cost, easy to use technological innovation, in assisting vaginal delivery in singleton term pregnancies during the second stage of labor. Interim evaluation of the device for safety and feasibility showed no major severe adverse events among women or infants enrolled in the study. The experience suggests that the device is easy to use and allows successful expulsion of the baby. The Odon device could play a major role in improving intrapartum obstetric care in the most vulnerable populations with the least access to well-trained specialists, extraction procedures or timely caesarean section.

Streamlining the Screening of Pregnant Women During ANC Through Development of the ANC Panel: A Single Point-of-Care, Sensitive, Low-Cost, Rapid, Paper-Based Microfluidic Diagnostic Test for Anemia, HIV, HBV, and Syphilis

Christina SwansonDiagnostics For AllCambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Grand Challenges for Development
Saving Lives at Birth
1 Oct 2015

Diagnostics For All will develop a sensitive, low-cost, rapid, paper-based microfluidic diagnostic test to screen pregnant women for anemia, HIV, HBV, and syphilis, from one drop of blood. This antenatal care (ANC) test panel will ensure that women who attend ANC at least once are tested for the most critical diseases and provided results on the spot. This ANC panel could improve maternal and child health outcomes for up to 31 million pregnant women in the developing world and their children.

Augmented Infant Resuscitator (AIR)

Data SantorinoMbarara University of Science and TechnologyMbarara, Uganda
Grand Challenges for Development
Saving Lives at Birth
20 May 2015

Effective resuscitation could reduce intrapartum related neonatal deaths by 30%, and deaths from prematurity by 10%, creating the potential to save 347,200 babies annually. However, one in five trained healthcare professionals (HCPs) fail to perform the resuscitation technique correctly, and those that do, often experience a rapid decline in proficiency. Our Augmented Infant Resuscitator's advanced training capabilities, instant feedback mechanism, and objective self-audit and retraining abilities will maximize and sustain gains from effective resuscitation. The AIR prototype provides instant feedback to users about effective ventilation. This is measured using inexpensive instrumentation that calculates ventilation rate, air volume and air pressure delivered by the bag-valve-mask (BVM) across the resuscitation face-mask. These parameters correlate with the four most common mistakes that result in ineffective resuscitation: 1) Failed seal at the face-mask interface resulting in failure to inflate the lungs; 2) Blocked airways; and 3) Wrong ventilation frequency 4) Insufficient/shallow lung inflation. Each of these mistakes can cause death or brain damage. AIR also records performance on an internal memory card for future feedback, improving HCPs training by identifying persistent gaps in technique.

Proving Adoption of the Bempu Temperature-Monitoring Band to Prevent Neonatal Hypothermia in Low-Resource Settings

Ratul NarainBempu Health Private LimitedBangalore, Karnataka, India
Grand Challenges for Development
Saving Lives at Birth
20 May 2015

Regular temperature monitoring is an effective means of detection and prevention of hypothermia but in our extensive field research, we observed that newborn temperature monitoring is rarely practiced in under-resourced clinics and uneducated homes. After vetting the need with over 75 pediatricians and filtering through several proposed solutions, we are developing Bempu, a novel, simple low-cost newborn temperature monitoring wristband. The band intuitively alerts a mother in case of hypothermia, enabling her to take early action.

mHealth for Safer Deliveries

Julia RubenD-Tree InternationalWeston, Massachusetts, United States
Grand Challenges for Development
Saving Lives at Birth
1 May 2015

D-tree International has developed and field-tested an integrated phone-based tool that supports screening and counseling of pregnant women using clinical algorithms, facilitates transportation to a health facility during labor using mobile banking and data storage, and supports the CHW to provide follow-up care to mothers and their infants using clinical algorithms. Preliminary results from this project after 6639 deliveries show an increase in rates of supervised deliveries to 77% and of post-partum follow up to 91% of births compared to a baseline estimate of 48% supervised deliveries and 36.2% follow up care prior to the project. This project aims to scale this project to all of rural Zanzibar and expand in other parts of Tanzania.

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