the maker movement project brief

4
For nearly 50 years, Concern Worldwide has worked with the world’s poorest people to transform their lives. We reach 7 .4 million people in 29 countries, working in emergency response, health and nutrition, climate resilience and more. Innovations for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, an initiative of Concern Worldwide U.S., pilots creative solutions for improving the survival and health of women, babies and children. Innovations is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. for maternal, newborn & child health THE MAKER MOVEMENT For Maternal, Newborn and Child Health

Upload: innovations-for-mnch

Post on 24-Jul-2016

235 views

Category:

Documents


2 download

DESCRIPTION

This innovative partnership between Kenyatta National Hospital and the University of Nairobi seeks to create low-cost, locally-designed medical devices and spare parts for the country’s maternity wards.

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: The Maker Movement project brief

For nearly 50 years, Concern Worldwide has worked with the world’s poorest people to transform their lives. We reach 7.4 million people in 29 countries, working in emergency response, health and nutrition, climate resilience and more. Innovations for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, an initiative of Concern Worldwide U.S., pilots creative solutions for improving the survival and health of women, babies and children. Innovations is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

for maternal, newborn& child health

THE MAKER MOVEMENTFor Maternal, Newborn and Child Health

Page 2: The Maker Movement project brief

Like many developing countries, Kenya’s health facilities lack or have limited access to basic medical equipment needed in maternity wards. Largely imported, this lifesaving equipment is expensive and hard to maintain with spare parts difficult to come by when the machines break. A survey of 40 health facilities in Nairobi showed that none had all the essential equipment necessary for normal labor, caesarian sections or routine neonatal care.

ABOUT THE MAKER MOVEMENT

The Program

To address this acute shortage in Kenya, Concern Worldwide’s Innovations for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (Innovations) has launched a pilot project called the Maker Movement. This innovative partnership between Kenyatta National Hospital and the University of Nairobi seeks to create low-cost, locally-designed medical devices and spare parts for the country’s maternity wards.

By combining the skills, knowledge and expertise of local university engineers with nurses and biomedical engineers from the hospital, and bringing the design process closer to the location where the devices are needed, Maker aims to find long-term solutions for Kenya’s maternal, newborn and child health medical equipment problems. The work of Maker could mean the difference between life and death for mothers and babies in critical health emergencies.

Progress to date

This diverse group of participants came together in 2014 to design, prototype and test a range of high quality, low-cost devices. After a needs assessment was conducted at Kenyatta National Hospital and referral clinics, nine medical devices were chosen to design and build: a phototherapy machine, examination light, delivery bed, patient monitor, vacuum delivery machine, suction machine, infant incubator, infant resuscitaire and air/oxygen blender. A Calibration Center was established at Kenyatta National Hospital to check, adjust and repair medical equipment.

In 2015 we renovated the new FabLab, or fabrication laboratory, at the University of Nairobi, Upper Kabete, where the engineers work. Maker has now designed and built prototypes of three devices – an examination light, suction machine and phototherapy machine. A research protocol has been successfully submitted so that they can be clinically tested.

Page 3: The Maker Movement project brief

Policy significance

Besides saving the lives of mothers and babies with functioning medical equipment, Maker has longer-term implications for the country. Maker’s goal of finding local solutions for local problems is in line with the Kenyan government’s national development program, Vision 2030, which seeks to foster the local production of equipment. In the future, the Maker model could revolutionize how health facilities source and repair medical equipment and help ease the Kenyan Ministry of Health’s reliance on costly and protracted international procurement processes.

The hope is that novel approaches like this one, which brings together designers and users in pursuit of local solutions, could be replicated elsewhere.

New Partnerships

In 2015, Maker joined UNICEF’s Global Innovations Center, with support from Philips Foundation, an arm of the Dutch company Philips. Together, we launched the Maternal and Newborn Health Innovations Project to catalyze homegrown solutions for maternal and newborn health care in Kenya.

Page 4: The Maker Movement project brief

New York

355 Lexington Ave. 16th Floor New York, NY 10017

P: (212) 557-8000

concernusa.org innovationsformnch.org

ConcernWorldwideUS

@Concern

ConcernWorldwideUS

[email protected]