The Newborn Foundation announces its formal commitment to the Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP), a global initiative to end preventable deaths of newborns. The ENAP is being launched at the 2014 PMNCH Partners’ Forum which is convening more than 800 invited participants from around the world for the two-day meeting of partners in maternal, newborn and child health in Johannesburg, South Africa, June 30 – July 1, to spotlight progress toward the 2015 Millennium Development Goals and launch the ENAP. The Newborn Foundation’s BORN Project (Birth Oximetry Routine for Newborns) is being highlighted among the high impact programs combatting preventable newborn deaths through the use of pulse oximetry screening for early detection of infection and “hidden” heart problems in newborns.
The Newborn Foundation has actively participated in the evolution of the ENAP and continues to collaborate with the UN partners in the execution of the action plan, which has been signed off on by 190 countries and approved by the World Health Assembly. Coordinated by the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH), UNICEF, USAID and the World Health Organization, with the support of a broad group of partners, the forum and the ENAP both are identifying actions for improving survival, health and development of newborns.
With large phased pilots in China, the BORN Project is providing health staff education, technology and implementation for the screening of 50,000 newborns in Sichuan Province. The project will deliver the first large-scale newborn data on the efficacy of mobile pulse oximetry technology at county- and village-level birth facilities. China has among the highest newborn mortality as a percentage of under-5 deaths. Globally, about 3 million newborns die each year within the first month of life, with neonatal sepsis, pneumonia and birth defects among the major killers, according to the World Health Organization.
“The ENAP’s mission is directly aligned with the strategic and programmatic work of the Newborn Foundation,” noted Annamarie Saarinen, co-founder and CEO of the Newborn Foundation. “We’ve always been focused on leveraging the innovation of the private sector to bring novel technologies to the newborns who need them most. We are honored that the BORN Project is making such an impact and is being recognized by the global maternal, newborn and child health community.”
The BORN Project was launched in 2013 in collaboration with global medical technology company, Masimo, and the nonprofit Patient Safety Movement Foundation. Masimo and the Newborn Foundation spent nearly two years working with public health officials, delivery hospitals, and clinicians to create the first viable, measure-through-motion and low perfusion, mobile-enabled pulse oximetry technology that can be adopted as part of routine neonatal screening for hypoxemia. Masimo’s engineering, design, and technical teams spent thousands of hours researching, designing and developing the iSp0(2)Rx, a mobile medical device that arms front-line health workers and serves the needs of babies in the lowest resource settings. In addition to screening newborns for hypoxemia, the technology can be used for monitoring babies in critical care settings, and for measuring oxygen saturations for maternal health.
About the Newborn Foundation | Coalition
The Newborn Foundation is an international non-profit working specifically to leverage health IT and medical technologies to improve access and outcomes while reducing disparities for newborns. The organization has been integral in the policy development, adoption and implementation of technologies for early detection, intervention and care of the youngest patients, including universal newborn heart screening as a public health initiative.