Resources

A comprehensive care approach to save lives of small and sick newborns

Preventable maternal, newborn, and child deaths remain unacceptably high. After decades of progress, mortality rates have stagnated. The targets set by leaders around the world to reduce maternal, newborn, and child deaths by 2030 are currently out of reach for many countries. However, with renewed commitment and strategic actions, we can get back on track.This brief from PATH's Center for Advocacy and Policy explores five key calls to action to address urgent maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) advocacy priorities and accelerate progress. It is intended for advocates, technical decision-makers, policymakers, and anyone who wants to learn about key MNCH advocacy approaches that can help drive sustainable improvements in health for women and children.

PATH partners with governments, civil society organizations, and advocates to advance health equity by informing evidence-based policymaking and funding decisions. We leverage technical expertise and deep relationships from country to global levels to design and shape impactful policies, ensure effective implementation, and strengthen capacity along the way.

This study explores whether an LLM, a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that processes and generates text in response to written questions and prompts, can help improve clinician decision-making in Kenya. LLMs have the potential to assist clinicians in making more evidence-based and informed decisions, especially when time and resources are limited. This study will evaluate the effectiveness of an LLM-based clinical decision support tool at Penda Health, a primary health care provider in Kenya.The study aims to evaluate if using an LLM can help reduce the number of patients who need to return to health care providers for unresolved health problems or need emergency care. We are also evaluating whether this tool can improve care for certain conditions, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, malnutrition in young children, and antibiotic prescribing in infectious diseases. Since these conditions are common but often go untreated or misdiagnosed, providing clear and accurate information to health care workers could make a significant difference.To test this, patients visiting Penda Health clinics will be assigned to one of two groups. In one group, clinicians will use the LLM to support their decisions and clinicians in the other group will not use the LLM. After their visits, patients will be contacted on days 3 and 14 to check if their symptoms have improved, if they had to seek additional care, or if they had other safety concerns. We will also collect information about how satisfied patients felt with their care.An independent panel of medical experts will review how well the LLM’s advice matched safe and effective clinical practices. We will determine if using the LLM influences health care workers’ decisions to refer patients for more advanced care. Additionally, we will review changes in the frequency of antibiotics and malaria medication prescriptions. Finally, we will look at how patients feel about the LLM-assisted care compared to regular care, particularly in terms of clarity and thoroughness.By the end of this study, we hope to understand how well this AI tool works in primary care settings in Kenya and whether it can safely support health care workers and improve patient care.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major, under–recognized public health problem causing more severe respiratory infections and hospitalizations in infants and young children each year than any other pathogen. New immunization tools now recommended for global use by the World Health Organization (WHO) could help change that.The opportunity to address this pervasive virus has never been better. To raise awareness, WHO and PATH have developed a toolkit of communication materials that public health stakeholders and advocates can use to share information about RSV disease, new prevention tools, and delivery considerations. Other expert contributors include the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Seattle Children's Hospital/University of Washington, UMC Utrecht, the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC), RRD Design, and more.To accommodate varying audience and engagement needs, this toolkit includes a stand-alone RSV primer presentation (and fact sheet) providing an overview of RSV disease and prevention options. Also available are modular PowerPoint slides that can be mixed and matched with the primer presentation to dive deeper into key topics for informing understanding and decision-making around RSV prevention. All slides come with speaker notes.To learn more about the toolkit, visit the web page.NOTE: Files available here as read-only. Editable files are readily available upon request. Please contact us.