FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
The majority of newborn deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa due in part to higher population densities, inequities in access to healthcare, limited resources, and political unrest. A newborn in Africa is 11 times more likely to die than their counterpart in Australia (which has the lowest mortality rates). Thus, improving newborn health is a priority in these countries. Our team includes leaders in the healthcare, scientific, and technologies fields from 5 African countries (Ethiopia, Gabon, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Uganda), which will lead the implementation of the studies and data analysis (see Meet the Team).
Triage is the process by which clinicians decide which patients should be prioritized for admission into the hospital or discharge, based on how urgently they need attention and the severity of their symptoms or disease.
Risk-stratification is the process by which clinicians decide which patients to prioritize for admission into the hospital or discharge, based on the overall risk of their condition worsening.
Our study is funded by the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), a public-public partnership between countries in Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, supported by the European Union. We also have additional funding from the United Kingdom Department for International Trade.
To use our test, clinicians will only have to collect 2 drops of blood obtained via a prick to the patient’s finger. This will be enough for the test to detect the biomarker levels in less than 20 min and display the results as an intuitive color-coded risk category: red for those at high risk, yellow for those at moderate risk, green for those at low risk. Based on these categories, clinicians can then decide whether to admit the patient to the hospital for treatment, keep them for observation, or discharge them. For the final version of our test, we plan to incorporate the results of our test into a mobile application that will display the results along with important information about the newborn, such as weight, age, vital signs, that will help the clinician make the best decision.
A prognostic test can determine whether an individual will acquire a specific condition in the future, as opposed to a diagnostic test that determines whether an individual has a specific condition or not in the present. In our case, our biomarker test will predict if a newborn’s condition will worsen or not after they are seen by the clinician.
A biomarker is a molecule that is found in blood, organs, or tissues and involved in normal biological processes. When we have a disease or condition, the levels of these molecules can increase or decrease, indicating a change in the biological processes. In our case, the biomarker on which our test is based, is present in the blood and is released from the inner layer of blood vessels in higher quantities when an individual is sick.
Current risk stratification strategies are insufficient to appropriately identify which patients have a greater likelihood of developing poor outcomes. This is why we are conducting this project with the goal of creating better tools to identify those most at risk and rapidly give them the appropriate care. Research has shown that tests based on biomarker levels are just as good or better than our current methods to predict the risk of poor outcomes. This is because biomarker levels are a measurable quantity whereas the current methods depend on observations based on symptoms which can be subjective. In addition, the biomarker test we are developing is based on a protein that is released early in the course of most common infections, which gives it the advantage of getting results fast and independently of the type of infection, to quickly make decisions that will result in improving the health of newborns. See scientific publications to read more about this research.
