Qualcomm partners Etisalat, Vecna Cares, Others To Improve Maternal And Child Health

Today at Mobile World Congress, Qualcomm Incorporated, through its Wireless Reach™ initiative; Vecna Cares Charitable Trust, the nonprofit arm of Vecna Technologies; Etisalat, a Nigerian  telecommunications operator, announced that they have teamed up to develop and deploy a wireless, electronic medical record (EMR) system to clinics throughout three states within the NPHCDA, bringing a paperless, mobile patient registry to midwives throughout rural Nigeria.

The Wireless Reach™ initiative also include Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), a part of the Federal Ministry of Health; InStrat Global Health Solutions, a turnkey health care solutions provider and Evidence for Action, a campaign to ensure Africa’s mothers and babies survive pregnancy and childbirth.

The CliniPAK360 project aims to reduce the country’s high maternal and infant mortality rates.

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country. It also has maternal and infant mortality rates that are among the world’s highest. The US Central Intelligence Agency estimates in The World Factbook that Nigeria experienced approximately 630 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2010 and approximately 73 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 2013.  In comparison, the maternal death rate in developed countries is approximately nine per 100,000.
Currently, NPHCDA midwives record patient data in paper notebooks and Regional Health Officers travel to the clinics to review the reports for accuracy. To lighten this burden and increase accuracies and efficiencies, this Wireless Reach-funded project features a cloud-based electronic medical record system based on Vecna Cares’ CliniPAK software and 3G-enabled tablets powered by Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ processors to streamline and automate the in-field data capture and reporting process and help improve health outcomes.Qualcomm Snapdragon is a product of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated.

As part of the project, each midwife uses a tablet to record patient data at the point of care. The data is transmitted wirelessly via Etisalat’s 3G mobile network to the CliniPAK central server, which aggregates and synchronizes the data with clinic-based CliniPAK units. The system supports midwives as they interact with patients by alerting them to risk factors and red flags based on information assembled at the point of care.