36
harvard college
global health review
EXPERTS
The mother – a passive or active participant? In 2010, WHO Patients for Patient Safety, a global network of patients for patient safety champions, many of whom have suffered the consequences of poor care themselves, decided that they could not ignore this neglected tragedy any more. The potential of patient empowerment for these women is clear, and yet until now, it has been overlooked. W i t h information and increased awareness, mothers could reliably identify potential complications—in themselves and in their newborns—and access care in a timely fashion before the health situation deteriorates and leads to death. There is no reason why mothers and their families should not be engaged as an active participant in the provision of healthcare for themselves and their newborn.
ensure safe discharge from skilled care, to facilitate a mother’s decision to access skilled care in a timely manner, and to empower mothers with knowledge. It is aimed specifically at use by patients and is being developed using an innovative patient-centered approach combining expert consensus with global patient perspectives from a comprehensive and diverse group of patients from
mHealth component will use text or pre-recorded audio messages and interactive voice response (IVR) technology. The IVR system will help mothers further explore the nature and severity of any particular danger sign, as well as provide options for what to do next. It will link the mother to a healthcare provider or transport/emergency services. The opportunity cost of traveling to a health facility for many of these women is very high and using mobile technology will help the mothers to avoid unnecessary use of precious resources. SMS alerts will be possible so that a mother and her baby have the best possible chance to receive timely and appropriate care. The use of mobile phonesand communication devices for health – “mHealth” – has emerged as an important innovation with huge potential to empower patients and strengthen health systems globally. Mobile phone use is proliferating at an extraordinary rate, even in the most remote and marginalized populations of the world.
“SAFER MOTHERS...SAFER BABIES Empowering mothers of the world with precious knowledge to help prevent harm.”
By mothers, for mothers WHO Patient Safety and others have demonstrated improved outcomes through the use of clinical checklists to improve the safety of patients. All the checklists to date have been aimed at use by healthcare professionals. In keeping with the belief that safer care starts with the patient, the Patients for Patient Safety Program of WHO Patient Safety has chosen to target the first patient-held checklist style tool at mothers and their babies to increase safety during the high-risk postnatal period. The tool will provide a series of safety checks for common danger signs for a mother and her baby in the first seven days after birth. The aim of the tool is threefold: to
Mexico, Costa Rica, Kenya, Uganda, Pakistan, Poland, Egypt, United Kingdom, Argentina, Indonesia, China, Australia and the refugee population from Boise, Idaho.
The Mother/Baby 7-day mCheck The tool uses well recognized, evidence-based danger signs for a mother and her baby in the first seven days after birth to trigger questions that a mother can ask herself during this period. Upon identifying any of these danger signs in either herself or her baby, the tool can help a mother make an informed decision about the severity and urgency of the problem and when to access skilled care.
mHealth – using phones to increase access to quality care mHealth (mobile phone) technology will be used to enhance the paper-based checklist tool, delivering the checklist in a format appropriate for illiterate populations, and ensuring timely communication linkages between clients and health services. The
A new way for health? The developing world is struggling to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and the developed world is struggling with healthcare reform. The use of ‘new ways’ should not be underestimated. This is just one innovation that leverages the checklist approach and mobile technology while engaging and empowering one of the richest untapped global resources…the passion, the wisdom and the determination of the patient population…..….. so that all in healthcare are as safe as possible as soon as possible” (London Declaration 2005). •