General Electric, Others Discuss ICT Contribution Health in Nigeria

General Electric Healthcare in partnership with the Ministry of Health, The Wellbeing Foundation Africa and Save the Children recently convened key stakeholders and thought leaders in a roundtable programme designed to discuss ways technology and innovation can contribute to meeting Nigeria’s maternal and new born health goals.

This is in a follow up to the October 2012 launch of the Saving One Million Lives initiative in Abuja and as part of efforts aimed at fulfilling its commitment to Nigeria.

The roundtable programme was aimed at mobilizing partners to introduce new technologies and innovations in partnership with all levels of government.

As a result, GE and other invited participants signed a maternal and newborn pledge committing to one or more initiatives that will contribute to saving the lives of Nigerian mothers and Children under 5.

The conference also enabled participants to join a Public-Private Partnership for Maternal and Newborn Health to coordinate implementation across the many stakeholders.

According to Ms. Janeen Uzzell, director Healthcare Programmes GE Africa, new approaches are needed to reduce the rate of maternal mortality in Nigeria.

The initiative sets targets of preventing 17,000 maternal and 180,000 newborn deaths by 2015 by increasing the proportion of pregnant women who attend four or more antenatal care visits from 45% to 80%; by increasing the proportion of births with a skilled attendant from 40% to 85%; and by increasing the number of upgraded primary healthcare facilities from 1,000 to 5,000 - all by 2015.

She went further to say “if the necessary technologies were in place and available to the women most at risk, Nigeria could dramatically reduce maternal and newborn deaths”.

At the national level, it is seen that one of the main barriers to the achievement of Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5 in Nigeria is the slow rate of reduction in maternal and newborn deaths, this therefore brought about the need to accelerate action on maternal and newborn health.


The GE mission is better health for more people at a lower cost. Through Healthymagination, a six-year, $6 billion strategy for taking on the global health challenge, GE is focusing its efforts in Africa and particularly Nigeria on  accelerating progress to MDG’s 4 & 5 using its Healthcare business as a catalyst for change and delivery of new models of healthcare that will save the lives of mothers and babies.

GE supports the scaling up of localized programs focused on improving women’s and children’s health via its selected portfolio of products suited to low resource settings and designing appropriate healthcare solutions and new models of delivery in response to the unique needs of the regions where patients lack access to healthcare.

Speaking at the event, Mr. Temitayo Erogbogbo, WBFA executive director, also reaffirmed the organization’s commitment saying “The Wellbeing Foundation Africa will make available Personal Health Record (PHR) Health Checklists that will capture health information across the continuum of care, including incidents and management of diarrhea and pneumonia in children”.

Further to this and in support of gaps identified in demand generation for essential commodities and service access, WBFA through its global partnership will provide behavioral change and demand creation initiatives in support of Saving One Million Lives.

The roundtable was an avenue for major stakeholders from all levels of government , industry and non government organizations to come together to discuss the ways technology and innovation can improve the supply , demand and distribution of product and services needed to improve the way hospitals and health centers serves  mothers and new born.