Innovations

Screening for Maternal Anemia: A Low-Cost Solution for a Persistent Global Health Challenge
Device Features: User-friendly display of anemia status Compatible with cell phones Automatic data mapping and reporting to central server Collaborators: Center for Bioengineering Innovation & Design at Johns Hopkins University, the United States Agency for International Development Saving Lives at Birth and Laerdal Global Health Contact: For more information on this project, contact Brinnon Mandel at Brinnon. Mandel@jhpiego.org.

Global Health Need

Maternal anemia is one of the greatest causes of morbidity for mothers and newborns, with iron deficiency anemia contributing to more than 100,000 maternal and almost 600,000 newborn deaths each year. Despite global efforts to increase coverage of various prevention and treatment interventionsincluding deworming, intermittent preventive treatment of malaria during pregnancy, distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets, and nutritional and micronutrient supplementation programs the prevalence of anemia during pregnancy remains high, exceeding 40% worldwide and ranging from 52% to 59% in Africa. The presence of preexisting severe anemia (Hb < 7 mg/dL) on the day of birth increases the risk of maternal and newborn mortality five-fold and is also a risk factor for maternal and newborn conditions such as sepsis and low birth weight.

Low-Cost Technology Solution

Jhpiego and the Center for Bioengineering Innovation & Design at Johns Hopkins University (JHU-CBID) have developed HemoGlobe, a low-cost peripheral attachment that transforms a cell phone into an anemia screening and reporting tool. HemoGlobe uses the cell phones computational power to estimate hemoglobin levels and anemia severity based on recommendations from the World Health Organization, and reports the results to a central server. The device is designed to be used accurately by all levels of health care providers, including community health workers. Use of HemoGlobe will result in: (1.) Improved community-based, noninvasive screening of maternal anemia to detect those at highest risk, with counseling provided to severely anemic patients to seek therapy beyond oral iron supplementation (2.) Better targeting of public health resources for anemia prevention campaigns, blood transfusion facilities and parenteral iron programs to areas with high prevalence of severe maternal anemia (3.) Health system accountability, especially for helping individuals who are most difficult to reach

Current Status and Future of Hemoglobe

Jhpiego and JHU-CBID engineers have performed extensive research and bench testing for the HemoGlobe prototype, and plan to conduct field studies.