The World Health Organisation (WHO) has developed an electronic solution using hospital-based study on 10,000 pregnant women in Nigeria and Uganda to reduce the high labour-related child and maternal death rate in sub-Saharan Africa.
The software, an electronic health solution, tagged Simplified, Effective, Labour Monitoring-to-Action (SELMA) tool, would be built into mobile phones, tablets
and other mobile devices. It promises to enhance the capacity of less skilled persons working in rural areas but does not replace the expertise of a specialist.
and other mobile devices. It promises to enhance the capacity of less skilled persons working in rural areas but does not replace the expertise of a specialist.
WHO BOLD Research Group was led by João Paulo Souza, a Medical Officer at the WHO Department of Reproductive Health and Research, and a professor of Social Medicine at the Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo, Brazil.
Other members of the team include Prof. Olufemi T. Oladapo, a medical officer at the Department of Reproductive Health and Research, WHO Geneva, Switzerland; Dr. Bukola Fawole, an obstetrician/gynaecologist in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State and Dr. Livia Oliveira-Ciabati of the University of Sao Paulo.
The team, at a study dissemination meeting in Abuja, said they would have the test version ready by November 2016, which would be used in a large study next year.
Souza told The Guardian: “In November, we will release it for testing, and we hope by the end of next year, it will be ready for public use.”
He said the tool also promises to identify the essential elements of intra-partum monitoring that trigger the decision to use interventions aimed at preventing poor labour outcomes that usually lead to the death of mother and child.
Intra-partum is the period from the onset of labour to the end of the third stage of labour.
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