Product/Service Development

Baby Monitor, a mobile interactive voice response system, will bring clinical assessment and referrals directly to mothers and their infants in resource-poor settings who are unlikely to access routine care. To date, mobile applications largely have been used to send patient reminders and health information or to collect patient information through intermediaries such as community health workers. Patients in developing countries have not been end-users of mobile diagnostic tools and medical record systems.

Jhpiego and its partners (Johns Hopkins University Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design and Laerdal Global Health) propose to rapidly develop and conduct initial field-testing for an "E-Partogram", an affordable, easy-to-use, handheld electronic decision-making tool for preventing or managing complications during labor. The E-partogram could positively transform safe childbirth by enabling front-line providers to more rapidly assess and respond to labor complications and receive crucial guidance to save the lives of women and newborns.

We will administer a system of subsidized pre-paid e-vouchers and transportation subsidies delivered via mobile phone, as well as informational interventions, including SMS messaging, participatory networks, and radio. Our proposal addresses financial constraints by subsidizing the cost of health services, financing the costs of transportation, and providing incentives for women to save money for when they most need it.

Margaret McConnell and Jessica Cohen of Harvard School of Public Health in the U.S. will evaluate whether motivating pregnant women to choose a health care facility for delivering their baby prior to the onset of labor, along with offering free transportation to that facility, increases the safety of childbirth in Kenya. Currently, maternal and neonatal deaths in developing countries remain high despite the availability of high quality facilities for child delivery.

Kris Ansin of the Mali Health Organizing Project in the U.S. will work to improve the use of primary health clinics in Mali by identifying shortcomings in patients' experiences at the clinics and working with staff to address them. They have already discovered that poor patient reception and hospitality strongly deter individuals from using these clinics. They will identify more specific patient concerns and help overcome them by training staff. They will evaluate their approach by measuring patient satisfaction, clinic usage, and health outcomes.

Prakarsh Singh of Amherst College in the U.S. will test different financial incentives to motivate staff at day care centers in India to improve their performance. These day care centers provide meals for preschoolers and nutritional education to their mothers, however the service is often below optimal. They will perform a randomized trial in slum areas of Chandigarh to evaluate three different methods to financially reward caregivers for improving the weight-for-height of malnourished children visiting their day care centers.

Manuela Angelucci from the University of Michigan in the U.S. will test whether addressing financial insecurity and chronic stress in poor Mexican women can improve health. They will perform a randomized control trial involving 15,000 low-income Mexican women who are currently in a national program that provides cash when they receive regular health checks. They hypothesize that automatically transferring 10% of that money into a savings account will simplify the women's finances and thereby reduce stress and improve mental health.

Andrew Cross of Microsoft Research India in India will try to improve adherence to tuberculosis medication in India by evaluating an inexpensive approach combining personalized pill packaging with mobile phones to report when medication has been taken and to receive reminders. Less than half of people with chronic diseases take their medication correctly. And for diseases like tuberculosis this can lead to drug-resistance, which is a serious problem. Solutions such as the electronic pillbox have been successful, but are expensive.

Nicholas Sowden from Penda Health in Kenya will test whether offering free manicures to health center visitors increases the number of visitors and frequency of visits by low-income Kenyan women and their families. Kenyan women with a limited income still spend money on personal care including manicures and hairstyling. They hypothesize that coupling these desirable goods and services with preventative health services will motivate more women to attend medical centers.

Svetha Janumpalli from New Incentives in the U.S. will test whether conditional cash transfers and incentives can prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission in Nigeria. While preventative measures such as medication, and facilities exist to decrease the risk of mother-to-child HIV transmission, they are often not utilized by the most vulnerable women.