Neotree exists to eradicate preventable newborn deaths in low-income countries through open-source, low-cost technology providing clinical decision support, education, and data capture empowering healthcare workers at the bedside. We can save over half a million babies’ lives and improve the care of over 27 million babies every year if Neotree is adopted by ministries of health across low-resource countries. Challenge - Every year, 2.4 million babies die in the first month of their lives. - 90% of these deaths occur in low-income settings. - 70% of them die from preventable conditions (more than 1.2 million babies each year). Most of these babies (over 75%) are born in healthcare facilities under the care of hard-working, well-intentioned nurses and doctors. How can we empower them to provide the high quality and consistent care needed to improve those babies’ chances of surviving and thriving? Solution Data and technology. Our low-cost, open-source app is driven by more than seven years of robust research through University College London, UK, and provides: - Clinical decision support guiding nurses and doctors at the bedside. - Training and education on how to perform tests and administer treatment. - Data collection - data is used by hospital staff and policymakers to improve newborn care. Evaluation and impact: To date, the Neotree platform has been used to improve the care of over 30,000 babies by more than 1,000 healthcare professionals in 5 hospitals and 1 primary care facility across Malawi and Zimbabwe. Evaluation has shown Neotree to be a highly usable, acceptable, feasible tool that has resulted in both perceived and observed improvements in newborn care, such as optimized prescription of antibiotics and reduced rates of hypothermia. It has proven resilient through industrial strikes and a global pandemic.
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