An innovative mobile health application, Nighedaasht, which has helped expand access to vital maternal and neonatal health services in remote areas of Pakistan, has won a prestigious award at the Commonwealth Digital Health Awards 2018 (CDHA).
Nighedaasht won the top prize in the Maternal and Neonatal Health category. Judges commended the application’s innovative use of SMS technology to synchronise data about healthcare services received by pregnant women and new mothers in rural areas of Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral. Nighedaasht was up against eight other finalists from Asia, Africa and Europe in the category.
The annual CDHA awards recognise the best digital health innovations in the 53 Commonwealth countries, which are raising the standard of healthcare and wellbeing. The award means that Nighedaast will be showcased to health ministers from around the Commonwealth during meetings at next year’s World Health Assembly in Geneva where policymakers will review emerging healthcare challenges and discuss which innovations can be scaled up.
Learn more about Nighedaast in this
video.
“Gaps in health service delivery for expecting mothers and newborns are especially concerning in hard-to-reach areas," said Saleem Sayani, Director of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) Digital Health Resource Centre. "Applications like Nighedaasht play a key role in ensuring that pregnant women and new mothers receive antenatal and postnatal care whenever and wherever they need it.”
From January to September 2018, Nighedaasht has helped serve 513 mothers; supported community midwives (CMW) with 158 deliveries, 399 initial antenatal, and 162 follow up antenatal visits; and tracked 47 referrals.
The application is currently being used by 31 CMWs and eight physicians in eight health facilities in northern Pakistan. The application was developed by the AKDN Digital Health Resource Centre under the AQCESS Project, implemented by Aga Khan Health Services, Pakistan, and funded by the Aga Khan Foundation, Canada, and Global Affairs Canada.
Another award-winning mobile health application, Teeko, which was developed jointly by AKDN and Aga Khan University,
has been adopted by the Sindh government after a successful pilot in the province in 2015.
The CDHA 2018 event was organised by the Commonwealth Centre for Digital Health in association with the British Medical Journal, in Sri Lanka.
