Product/Service Development

The new and innovative WE CARE Solar Suitcase is a simple, user-friendly technology that provides a sustainable source of power, allowing health workers to provide life-saving interventions 24 hours a day. The Solar Suitcase makes solar-power accessible, affordable, and useful in developing rural communities.

NOvate's first product offering, SafeSnip, is a patent-pending disposable and degradable plastic obstetric device that simultaneously cuts, clamps, and shields the umbilical cord from infection. SafeSnip's symmetric design and multiple safety features prevent misuse and shorten the delivery process by transforming umbilical cord severance into an intuitive one step procedure. SafeSnip will decrease healthcare costs and increase the standard of care for newborns by addressing infection-related mortality in developing countries while maintaining technologic relevance in developed nations.

As part of a suite of jaundice diagnostic and treatment technologies aimed at ending kernicterus, we have developed Comet, an extremely low-cost, high-performance, and compact jaundice treatment device targeted at rural and limited-infrastructure clinics and hospitals in developing countries. Comet integrates low power consumption and high intensity LEDs with a lifespan of 3-5 years to provide phototherapy on par with state-of-the-art devices. However, Comet requires minimal maintenance and is designed to retail at less than $150.

This proposal involves testing an innovative fetal heart rate monitor powered by human energy (winner of the global INDEX design award) and mobile phone based mortality audit data to improve timely and appropriate action. Uganda's new national paper-based mortality audit system will be adapted to a mobile phone platform to capture maternal and neonatal deaths and stillbirths, and use this data to improve intrapartum monitoring and response. Facilities will collect this data and will be linked to communities using cell phones to request emergency transport and report births and deaths.

Dr. Ashish Jain, of Hindu Rau Hospital in Delhi, India, has developed an improvised bubble CPAP device that relies solely on an oxygen source, water, and parts commonly found in neonatal intensive care units across India. Our proposal aims to further enhance this device by combining it with an innovative oxygen blender that requires neither electricity nor a pressurized source of air and is intended to reduce the hazard associated with providing infants 100 percent oxygen. In addition, Dr.

Grameen Foundation, in partnership with Ghana Health Service, aims to expand the successfully piloted MOTECH (Mobile Technology for Community Health) initiative to two new districts in a transition plan towards national scale-up. The program will reach approximately 14,000 pregnant women and 46,000 children under five over the two-year implementation, increasing access to accurate health information, generating increased demand for antenatal, postnatal and neonatal care, and providing detailed data on health service delivery and outcomes to Ghana Health Service.

Malezi-Bora is a mobile application, availed in local languages, with audio content regarding maternal and newborn health. It works on ultra-low-cost handsets and leverages village social networks. It utilizes a pay-it-forward business model, designed to incentivize mothers to virally share its content, and mapping technology to identify mothers in distress. The application focuses on addressing the inability of current health information-sharing systems gaining critical-mass usage and the inability of community health workers to reach every mother.

This project will involve the development of a novel aerosol delivery system for oxytocin that can be inhaled by patients from a simple, disposable device immediately after childbirth. This approach will remove the need for sterile conditions and trained health workers for administration of oxytocin. It will eliminate the risk of needle-stick injuries, transmission of blood-borne viruses and the costs associated with disposal of sharps and biohazard waste materials, as well as provide a more stable formulation of the drug that does not require cold-chain storage.

An HIV+ mother will often be reluctant to travel to a clinic the day or two after delivering her baby. She may feel too weak to travel to a clinic miles away or fear stigmatization after explaining why she must go to a clinic after delivering a healthy baby. This leaves millions of children at risk of becoming HIV+ during the birthing process. We have developed and tested in the laboratory a foilized, polyethylene pouch - something like a fast-food ketchup pouch - that can store the medication for months.

Healthpoint Services India Pvt. Ltd ("eHealthPoint") proposes to deploy maternal/child health services that leverage its existing innovative rural healthcare delivery model while adding cutting-edge mHealth tools to reach out to surrounding communities.