Creating tools to improve maternal health in West Africa
BroadReach, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will be developing a machine learning tool to improve maternal health as part of the Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health project. Over the next two years and in collaboration with the African Academy of Sciences and the West Africa Health Organization (WAHO), BroadReach will use actionable data insights to help improve maternal, neonatal and child health outcomes, in the West Africa sub-region.
Specifically:
- Develop a dynamic risk-scoring tool to predict high risk pregnancies and maternal morbidity. This will apply machine learning and statistical analysis to a summarized set of predictors for maternal morbidity and adverse pregnancy outcomes.
- Make evidence-informed recommendations for policy interventions and program actions to WAHO.
We will evaluate the performance of the tool initially within one of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) member countries. Once proven, we will be scale up the tool for use in WAHO member countries.
The project’s overall aim is to contribute towards the development of cost-effective and sustainable tools to support clinical and health system decision making, and maternal healthcare especially given the prevailing human, infrastructure, and resource constraints within the sub-region.
Click here for more information about our work in West Africa.