Population Council Research that makes a difference

Saving Lives at Birth Grand Challenge Results Announced in Washington, DC

Population Council associate Eric Green was in Washington, DC, 28 July, at the Saving Lives at Birth awards ceremony. USAID and partners Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Grand Challenges Canada, and The World Bank selected the Baby Monitor project and 18 other innovative projects from a field of 77 finalists to receive funding, pending final review.

Baby Monitor will take clinical screening directly to women in the critical period before and after birth. This mobile phone application—to be developed with Council partners at InSTEDD, a developer of open-source software tools—will use interactive voice response technology to detect complications and take action. Women will listen to screening questions in their local language and respond via pressing a key. Baby Monitor will assess responses and, if necessary, send information, make referrals, and dispatch community health workers.

This low-cost application will increase Kenyan mothers' access to primary health care, improve the quality of service delivery, and make better use of limited numbers of skilled birth attendants and community health workers in resource-poor settings. Baby Monitor is innovative because it will target hard-to-reach patients as end-users of a mobile screening service.

Links

• "Saving Lives at Birth: Baby Monitor—Connecting women and infants to care," Eric Green discusses Baby Monitor at the Saving Lives at Birth Grand Challenge (offsite link)
• Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development (offsite link)
• Baby Monitor: Connecting Women and Infants to Care (more)
• InSTEDD (offsite link)
• Comments by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at the Saving Lives at Birth awards ceremony (offsite link)

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The Population Council confronts critical health and development issues—from stopping the spread of HIV to improving reproductive health and ensuring that young people lead full and productive lives. Through biomedical, social science, and public health research in 50 countries, we work with our partners to deliver solutions that lead to more effective policies, programs, and technologies that improve lives around the world. Established in 1952 and headquartered in New York, the Council is a nongovernmental, nonprofit organization governed by an international board of trustees.

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Media contact

Diane Rubino: drubino@popcouncil.org; +1 212 339 0617