Honoring: The NEST360 international alliance—Rice University Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies, Kamuzu University of Health Science, Malawi University for Business and Applied Sciences, Addis Ababa University, APIN Public Health Initiatives, 3rd Stone Design, Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology, Hatch Technologies, Ifakara Health Institute, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Malawi University of Science and Technology, Northwestern University, Oxford KEMRI Wellcome Trust, University of Ibadan, and University of Lagos; US Agency for International Development; and all NEST360 funders
More than 1.1 million newborns die annually in Africa. While most of these deaths are preventable, many African hospitals lack the lifesaving technologies needed to care for small and sick newborns, either because existing tools are prohibitively expensive or not suited for rugged conditions. NEST360 is an international alliance working to address this gap by developing and sustainably scaling up a package of services including a bundle of affordable, fit-for-purpose innovations, with training and implementation resources, to improve newborn care in African hospitals.
Born out of the Rice University Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies, Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences, and Malawi University of Science and Technology and fueled by support from the US Agency for International Development, NEST360 is composed today of experts from 15 leading organizations. Deploying a comprehensive health systems approach, combining the development and validation of technologies with the distribution systems, training, and resources to support their use, NEST360 has advanced numerous game-changing devices, from a low-cost CPAP to help babies breathe to a battery-operated jaundice detector, and achieved significant progress in transforming newborn care in Africa. Since its founding in 2017, beginning with Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria, NEST360 has delivered more than 2,300 technologies, which have supported the delivery of 500,000 newborns and the care of 90,000 admitted newborns annually in NEST360 facilities.
Today, most women in Africa deliver their babies in health facilities, but clinicians working in those facilities do not have the technology they need to care for small and sick babies. The team is working together to identify high-quality, affordable technologies to fill this gap...to develop new technologies….and scale up what works best.
Dr. Rebecca Richards-Kortum
Co-founder, NEST360
Co-founder, NEST360
Newborn mortality cannot be tackled piecemeal...The solution to newborn mortality is more than affordable, repairable technologies; it is the financing and distribution systems to get them into hospitals and the education and training to use them to maximum effect.
Dr. Queen Dube
Co-founder, NEST360
Photos all: NEST360
