An AI system has cut stillbirths and neonatal deaths by 82% in a Malawi hospital
PeriWatch, an AI system that tracks mothers' and babies' vital signs in real-time to detect possible anomalies shortly before and after childbirth, has helped the Area 25 hospital in Malawi reduce its stillbirth and neonatal death rate by 82%.
Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world, also has some of the worst odds for newborn babies, with approximately 20 out of every 1,000 babies dying during delivery. Several factors account for these numbers, for instance, despite offering free healthcare for its whole population, the country only allocates $14 per patient. Others have to do with staffing and technology issues: current fetal monitoring techniques in many places still rely on the timely identification of very subtle warning signs by clinicians seldom working in reasonable conditions concerning the availability of human and material resources.
Three years ago, a partnership between software provider PeriGen, the Texas Children’s Global Women’s Health Program, Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation-Malawi, and the Malawi Ministry of Health (Area 25) made it possible to equip a hospital handling over 7,000 deliveries in Malawi with PeriWatch Vigilance software, an automated early-warning system to monitor mothers' and babies' vital signs in real-time to identify patterns that may be of concern.
When PeriGen's technology detects any anomaly, it notifies healthcare personnel about their presence, so they can swiftly review the system's findings to determine an appropriate course of action. Since PeriWatch was deployed three years ago, the Area 25 hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi's capital, has seen many lives saved due to the software's early warnings, which have led to an 82% reduction in the clinic's stillbirth and neonatal death rate.
