Improving Maternal and Child Health in Lwengo District, Uganda

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• The Challenge: Pregnant women in rural Uganda face critical risks due to limited medical access and a severe clinician shortage. In Lwengo District, maternal mortality rates significantly exceed both national and international averages.
• The Intervention: Deployment of the Kensa Health Virtual Care platform to support field teams equipped with Blood Pressure Monitors, enabling the digital capture and tracking of maternal health data.
• The Result: Enhanced oversight of high-risk pregnancies, establishing a digital framework for early complication detection and timely clinical intervention in underserved communities.

CLINICAL CONTEXT & OBJECTIVES

• Patient Population: Pregnant women in the Lwengo District requiring consistent antenatal monitoring.
• Primary Objective: To diminish maternal mortality rates resulting from pregnancy complications by enhancing the well-being of expectant mothers through technology.
• Baseline Context: The maternal mortality rate in Uganda stands at approximately 336 per 100,000 live births, a stark contrast to the UK rate of less than 12 per 100,000.
• Regional Target: Lwengo District faces an even higher rate of approximately 500 per 100,000 live births. The project seeks to establish health baselines to drive these figures down through personalised care.

THE CHALLENGE (THE GAP IN CARE)

• High Mortality Drivers: Maternal health in Lwengo is compromised by poverty, infectious diseases, and limited access to quality healthcare.
• Resource Scarcity: A critical shortage of clinicians (10 per 300,000 residents) makes traditional, high-frequency check-ups logistically impossible.
• Geographic & Economic Barriers: Travel distances and financial constraints often prevent women from seeking care until a crisis occurs.
• Data Fragmentation: Without a centralised digital record, clinicians cannot identify the subtle physiological shifts, such as rising blood pressure, that precede emergency events

TECHNICAL INTERVENTION (THE KENSA HEALTH SOLUTION)

• Field Monitoring: Community health teams are equipped with Blood Pressure Monitors to conduct regular screenings during clinic visits.
• Virtual Care Platform: Blood pressure readings and vital data are recorded and managed via the centralised Kensa Health Virtual Care platform, providing a digital audit trail for every patient.
• Risk Assessment: The platform allows clinicians to oversee patient data remotely, improving the accuracy of identifying hypertensive disorders and other pregnancy-related complications.

FINDINGS & PROJECT INDICATORS

• User Onboarding: Successful registration of participants into the digital health system to begin continuous data collection.
• System Efficiency: The platform enables a "hub-and-spoke" model of care, where a limited number of clinicians can manage a large, geographically dispersed patient group.
• Clinical Insight: Early data capture allows for the identification of baseline metrics and the monitoring of pregnancy progression in real-time.

CLINICAL ACTION & FUTURE WORK

• Full Deployment: Scaling the platform across local healthcare facilities in Uganda.
• Long-term Oversight: Maintaining continuous monitoring for all enrolled participants to ensure safer delivery outcomes.
• Local Adaptation: Gathering feedback from local clinicians to tailor the platform requirements to the specific needs of rural Ugandan medicine.

OUTCOME & VALUE PROPOSITION

• Health Equity: Promotes inclusive care by extending high-quality monitoring to women who are traditionally excluded from the healthcare estate.
• Mortality Reduction: A strategic focus on reducing Lwengo’s mortality rate from 500 to 300 per 100,000 live births through proactive digital intervention.
• Sustainability: Strengthening the local health economy by integrating scalable digital infrastructure that compensates for physical personnel shortages.