By Pranay Nadella
This past winter, I had the privilege of interning at Villgro. I’ve done previous work on maternal and child health and so, was set to work on researching maternal and child health in India as well as the current landscape of innovation in the field.
Take-away: Many infrastructural and social barriers prevent health care access in India. In rural areas, understaffed medical facilities and poor roads make proper treatment difficult to reach. Even more ingrained in Indian society are gender divides, which cause girls to have greater mortality and worse access to health care for the same conditions as boys. Because of these forces impeding equity in health care, my research on successful solutions has led me to point-of-care innovations as the road to improvement in maternal and child health.
These point-of-care innovations, such as the nonpneumatic antishock garment or a phone oximeter, are cost-effective and simple to promote easy use by health care workers in villages and other under-resourced areas. They use widely penetrated resources like phones to make improvements in maternal and child health available to all.
Villgro is looking for healthcare innovators who are developing medical products that help women and children from poor communities in India. If you have an idea or a business and are looking for funding and incubation support, apply at: www.http://183.82.33.232:8095/villgro2020/incubation