PR93570

LONDON, Dec. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

- The Obstetric Safe Surgery (OSS) Project in Kenya is funded by Johnson &

Johnson and to date has been implemented by Jhpiego as the lead organization,

in collaboration with County and National Ministries of Health and professional

associations.

- To support implementation moving forward, Proximie and Ariadne Labs have

formed a unique partnership with Jhpiego to integrate Jhpiego's best practices

in safe obstetric surgery with Proximie's state of the art technology platform

to leverage multi-sensory augmented reality tools.  

- The OSS project, working closely with leadership from the Kenya Ministry of

Health, aims to address some of the key health systems challenges in the

maternal health space, specifically in the safety and quality of cesareans.

- Globally, approximately 810 women die every day from preventable causes

related to pregnancy and childbirth. In addition, around 6700 newborns die

every day, amounting to 47% of all under-5 deaths. Moreover, about 2 million

babies are stillborn every year, with over 40% occurring during labor.

- Life-saving or disability-averting treatment offered by surgery is

unavailable to 5 billion people, almost three quarters of the global

population, and this burden is disproportionately borne by those living in

Low-to-Middle-Income Countries (LMICs).

- Proximie's software will help virtually train and mentor surgical teams in

helping save the lives of mothers and newborns.

- The project is currently being implemented in Makueni County.  

Proximie has teamed up with Jhpiego, a Johns Hopkins University affiliate, on a

safe surgery project in Kenya to layer in their unique software that allows

physicians anywhere in the world to virtually "scrub-in" and mentor colleagues

in real time.

Proximie has offered its technology to Jhpiego, a global health non-profit

working in 40-plus countries, to improve obstetric surgical care for women by

expanding and enhancing the learning and mentorship in Jhpiego's Obstetric Safe

Surgery project now underway in five hospitals in Makueni County. The goal of

the 22-month project is to support the government of Kenya's commitment to

reduce maternal and newborn deaths and obstetric-related injuries by improving

the quality of caesarean sections. Seventy-one percent of facility-based

maternal deaths in Kenya are associated with caesarean sections, and 9 out of

10 maternal deaths are linked to a lack of quality standardized care.

Funded by Johnson & Johnson, the Jhpiego-led project is grounded in a

health-systems approach, leveraging local expertise to build networks of care

to deliver safe and timely surgical obstetric care. The Proximie platform

offers the prospect of enhanced and expanded learning by obstetric surgical

teams.

Supporting the design and evaluation of the enhanced OSS project is Ariadne

Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation at Brigham and Women's

Hospital, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Dr. Doris Mbithi, Medical Superintendent of the Mother and Child Hospital in

Makueni County and a partner on the OSS project, said the Jhpiego-Proximie

alliance will help surgeons perfect their skills and address issues that

arise.  

"Sometimes things happen in the (operating) theatre and not all team members

remember the process," she said. "With the recordings, we can identify gaps and

rectify. I am also happy that at night, I have the possibility to support

remotely, either at my hospital or to help keep a potential referral at the sub

county hospital by consulting remotely."

Dr. John Varallo, Global Director Safe Surgery at Jhpiego, said the partnership

can increase the impact realized thus far: "By offering real-time, remote

surgical consultation, this project has the true potential of being a

game-changer in improving the safety and quality of surgical care in Kenya, and

in other countries where Jhpiego works. Collaborating with innovative thought

leaders at Proximie and Ariadne Labs, and continuing to work in close

partnership with the government of Kenya and the surgical teams on the ground,

our true champions of the Obstetric Safe Surgery work, we have the opportunity

to amplify the progress made in surgical safety and quality to date."

Dr. Nadine Hachach-Haram, CEO of Proximie, said she founded Proximie "on the

ethos that shared knowledge leads to accelerated learning and better patient

care," and the Obstetric Safe Surgery project embodies that.

"Our work with the local surgical teams on the ground in Kenya, and with

Jhpiego, and Ariadne Labs, is going to help democratize access to important

caesarean section surgical techniques and knowledge that would otherwise be

siloed due to geography or time," Hachach-Haram said. "Proximie is going to be

harnessed pre, intra and postoperatively in order to ensure women and their

babies have access to high-quality care, at a critical time. I have always

believed that collaboration is the cornerstone of driving meaningful change in

healthcare and the Obstetric Safe Surgery project will not just help to reduce

maternal and neonatal mortality, but hopefully provide a blueprint for others

to follow."

A leader in healthcare innovation and implementation, Ariadne Labs has

experience in designing and building in-country capacity and expertise to

implement digital innovations which will be leveraged to inform critical

discussions on sustainable digital health throughout Kenya, and beyond.

"We're pleased to collaborate with Proximie and Jhpiego to leverage our

experience in public health, frontline clinical care, and human-centered design

to improve the quality of surgical care that women and their newborns receive

as well as enhance the clinician experience," said Katherine Semrau, PhD, MPH,

Principal Investigator and Director of Ariadne Labs' BetterBirth program. "Our

aim at Ariadne Labs is to reduce suffering and save lives for people everywhere

-- whether in Boston, Nairobi, or Lucknow -- by developing scalable,

systems-level solutions. We look forward to supporting the measurement and

evaluation of this work, to ultimately improve the interventions and their

implementation."

Notes To Editors

You can follow the Project across social media channels with the hashtag

#ProjectSafeSurgery as well as on Medium Magazine The Link.

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Source: Proximie