Small Things Move Quickly - Updates in Global Health

Last week Dr. Kris Olson and Aya Caldwell of the CIMIT Global Health Initiative gave us a view into their approach on solving neonatal asphyxia through sustainable training in the developing world. What I love about their work here is that they are not changing a culture or imposing new paradigms, instead they are local capacity building where the midwives themselves came up with their model of sustainability.

In short, Kris and Aya have helped midwives in Aceh Indonesia utilize a tool that already existed to them, but wasn't being implemented properly. Simple training and simple technology can now become a badge of honor. This was a big problem with a small solution and from their presentation one thing became very clear: Small things move quickly.

A few key points to remember on this topic:

• Birth asphyxia (failure to breathe) is the third leading cause of neonatal deaths worldwide (1 million deaths/year)
• With proper resuscitation techniques 70-80% of these deaths can be averted
• Midwives in many areas of Indonesia have not received any continuing medical education in 9 years due to the Tsunami and preceding civil conflict

In this 7 minute video Kris and Aya give us a breakdown as to how they did it and where they go from here.

Coming next: We'll be posting a stunning presentation by Tim Prestero of Design That Matters on the Car-Part Incubator. Look for it shortly!

Best,

Mike

Comments

This is a very interesting article on Drs. Kris and Aya’s take on neonatal asphyxia. It provides us with quite an insight into the problem as well.

[Stephanie]

Wow...
Thank you very much
Emanuel