A team of entrepreneurs, researchers and medical professionals in Zambia is leveraging artificial intelligence to improve care for pregnant women.
A 2022 study shows that although Zambia’s maternal mortality rate has more than halved between 2000 and 2017, women in Zambia still have a 1% risk of dying during pregnancy or childbirth.
Tafadzwa Kalisto Munzwa, founder and CEO of Dawa Health, headquartered in Lusaka, Zambia, said his company’s DawaMom project leverages AI tools, last-mile health workers, mobile clinics and digital tools to improve maternal and child health. states that it is improving.
More than 60 community health workers support community health through DawaMom, and more than 800 mothers have registered on the mobile platform.
“Generative AI models are patient-facing and respond to patient queries by capturing and building health advice from locally curated documents to support jargon-based queries on the platform.” he said, adding that the doctor-facing model analyzes ultrasound scan images to identify advanced symptoms. There are risks such as pregnancies such as placenta previa, multiple pregnancies such as twins, and a ruptured uterus.
AI-powered health platforms are expected to democratize access to maternal health care through networks of local health workers, achieve universal health coverage in low- and middle-income countries, and reduce maternal mortality rates. Masu.
“Additional studies and datasets we are currently developing will focus on postpartum hemorrhage and obstructed labor/cephalopelvic disproportion (CPD) using multiple maternal and fetal variables. ” says Munzwa. “These models allow first-level clinicians (clinicians, midwives and medical licensees) to identify higher-risk pregnancies in time for referral.”
All of these projects aim to reduce maternal and child mortality and injury during pregnancy, childbirth and infancy, he explains.
“Zambia is an ideal place to test this technology because the government, through the Ministry of Health, has announced a Digital Health Strategy for 2022 that emphasizes the digitization of the health system,” Munzwa said. said, adding that the government is already implementing complementary electronic services. health platform. Mobile penetration and internet penetration are also relatively high.
“The greatest opportunity lies with the limited number of specialized healthcare workers in sub-Saharan Africa, who are addressing the need for more accessible and sophisticated technology, such as artificial intelligence, to support rapid and timely clinical decision-making. AI illusions, he said, adding: Biased training datasets and over-reliance on such technology are all challenges along the way.
“We are collaborating with anthropology PhD students and biostatisticians/physicians at the University of Cape Town to generate further empirical evidence for our research on maternal and child health,” Munzwa said. Masu.
DawaMom has been recognized in the Caring Economy category of MIT Solve.
From Zimbabwe to Zambia
Munzwa grew up in Harare, Zimbabwe, where he was constantly tinkering with electronics, computers, and backyard chemistry experiments. He explains that this laid the foundation for his current STEM work.
“During medical school, a close cousin of mine had her first pregnancy, which had some minor complications but eventually resolved,” Munzwa said, adding that this is how he appreciates the quality of health services in the region. He added that this was the first opportunity to consider ease of use.
“Together with our co-founder partners, we took a closer look at how maternal and child health services are being delivered and the scale of the problem, and found unacceptable results,” he says. “My career journey in research began with research training in medical school, which led to my interest in scientific and empirical methods as evidence for policy, new models and further research work.”
Munzwa explains that it is important that scientists from the Global South lead research and solutions to global challenges. Because it is their families, communities, and economies that are most affected by these issues. And the adoption of these solutions will largely depend on who is leading and driving it.
“For example, in my community, many people were reluctant to take the COVID-19 vaccine because most of the vaccines were manufactured and developed in the Global North,” he says, adding that many people were reluctant to take the COVID-19 vaccine because most of the vaccines were manufactured and developed in the Global North. He added that there had been misinformation and misinformation about and people from the Global North leading vaccine development.
“I have a strong cultural understanding of some of the barriers that exist to mass adoption of solutions developed from research work. We hope it will become essential when designing solutions,” says Munzwa.
next generation healthcare
Another use of AI technology in community healthcare is being championed by Libyan doctor-turned-engineer CEO Mohamed Ablawi. His team provided mental health services in areas of northeastern Libya devastated by flooding and dam collapse caused by Storm Daniel in late 2023.
“There is a dire need for trauma counseling, grief support and stress management. We have mobilized a team of 40 remote mental health professionals to provide counseling in local Arabic dialects.” he says.
Through partnerships with local telecommunications companies, Ablawi said his telemedicine startup Speetar is able to provide data packages to affected families, using local language and cultural nuances as well as trained and embedded AI bots. He says he can now reliably connect to the embedded platform. Leverage disaster-specific data to help guide patients before contacting experts.
A quick response could be the key. A 2013 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that early intervention in mental health after disasters can significantly reduce the risk of chronic mental illness, while a 2018 study found that mental health Telemedicine health interventions have been shown to be possible. It can save up to 40% in costs compared to traditional face-to-face care and is especially beneficial in resource-limited settings.
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