OpenForum – a blog by the Health and Human Rights community

The information needs of frontline health care professionals are vast, ranging from the latest WHO protocols and country-level policies to knowledge of the newest life-saving technologies. Promising new technologies — including mobile health facilities; lightweight, portable diagnostic tools; solar-powered devices; and simple ways to save neonates — are emerging at a more rapid pace, but these developments are not centrally tracked. Such innovations are often reported in medical journals, but subscription requirements mean that this information is out of reach for many. In addition, most innovations are only written up once they are through testing and/or trials and not at the very early stages of their development. Thus, even after life-saving technologies are developed, a major barrier to use of these technologies still exists — knowledge of their existence. One solution: websites like Maternova.

Maternova is a new online knowledge-sharing platform (or “innovation portal”) that brings together social entrepreneurs who are developing or have developed life-saving technologies. The website allows all of their ideas and innovations to be documented in a single place. A number of these innovators are well known globally, but many of the innovations have only been uncovered after months of research. Now, innovators are starting to come to us through word of mouth.

As our name suggests, Maternova purposefully focuses on much-needed global access to information on maternal and newborn technologies. We also provide information on a variety of more general innovations — to us, anything that augments or expedites safe childbirth (for mother and infant) in the field is an innovation, including improvements in lighting, power, infrastructure, communication technologies, and, of course, health technologies. These are all part of a health system that can save mothers’ lives.

Three very basic questions guide our work. First, what are the effective, low-cost tools (both those in development and those on the market) that can save lives? Second, given the tools that exist, what are the priorities for new ideas? And third, where are the facilities located that can provide skilled care to women? Read more

A number of non-traditional practices are arising in poor and developing communities to fight high maternal mortality rates. One example that has taken hold in many African countries is the use of non-physician clinicians (NPCs) – health care providers who are not licensed physicians but who still provide substantial medical care. The retention rate of these types of practitioners tends to be higher, and the cost of training and deployment much lower, than those of doctors.

At a recent conference, health delegates from 42 countries agreed to implement a new strategy that trains NPCs in emergency obstetric surgery to address the lack of health care workers. Along with other developing areas, most African countries are suffering from a significant lack of medical professionals. This shortage is particularly implicated in the high rates of maternal and infant deaths during childbirth. The WHO has estimated that in sub-Saharan Africa alone, there is a shortage of nearly 1.5 million health care workers; women there face a 1-in-13 risk of dying in childbirth. Most women are unable or unwilling to access medical facilities or workers, even during emergencies; for example, in Ethiopia, only 6% of all births occurred in a health facility.

By expanding the number of NPCs and training them in surgical childbirth procedures, it is hoped that more births will be attended by trained health care workers who can assist women during emergencies. A program in Mozambique that trains midwives in surgical techniques has already achieved significant results. The country is on the way toward meeting several of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, particularly those surrounding maternal and newborn health. Read more