In a recent article for the BMJ, Shyama Kuruvilla, PhD and her colleagues at the World Health Organization make the case for multisectoral collaboration to address global challenges outlined by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The article presents case studies from 12 countries that highlight different models of enabling factors that help catalyze effective multisectoral collaboration as reflected in the above graphic. Examples of successful collaboration can be seen in countries around the world from India, South Africa and Sierra Leone to Germany and the United States.

According to Kuruvilla and her colleagues, the case studies selected bring to light three common components of strong multisectoral partnerships: a contribution to health and sustainable development goals, including benefits perceived by service users; success within the collaboration in terms of strength of relationships, innovation, and incentives; and the scaling up and sustainability of the effort. Learning not just from the successes as defined by the countries themselves, but also from challenges and failures, she argues, plays a key role in informing action and sustaining gains.

 

 

Neonatal medical device startup, Little Sparrows Technologies, received the US Patent and Trademark Office's (USPTO) 2018 Patents for Humanity award earlier this month along with eight other nominees. Little Sparrows was recognized for its portable, low-cost phototherapy device that treats jaundice in infants, a condition which causes 100,000 newborn deaths each year. The company has also partnered with SL@B Round 8 Nominee, INMED Partnerships for Children to develop the Bilikit  ---  an integrated package of simple and low-cost technologies for the screening, diagnosis and treatment of severe neonatal jaundice throughout Peru.

The USPTO's Patents for Humanity awards competition recognizes innovators who use game-changing technologies to meet global humanitarian challenges. In addition to the win from Little Sparrows, Seattle-based Shift Labs  ---  a Saving Lives at Birth Round 7 Innovator  ---  received an honorable mention for its product DripAssist, a simple, compact device that clips to any IV drip to monitor the rate at which medication or fluids are delivered and allows clinicians to easily set dose rates.  

 
 

Read about these and other innovations supported by Saving Lives at Birth on Medium.

 

The World Health Organization, with support from AO Foundation, has developed a new initiative designed to address global emergency and trauma needs in 10 low- and middle-income countries where emergency care delivery is currently lacking. In addition to identifying areas where gaps in services exist, the Global Emergency and Trauma Care Initiative aims to improve proper and accurate data collection, frontline clinical healthcare and health worker training. With a launch in 2019, the initiative will be locally-led but will leverage WHO's technical expertise and resources to identify and target weak points where improvements are needed.

Emergencies are often cited in the form of large-scale catastrophic events  ---  outbreaks of disease, natural disasters, etc. In many countries, however, routine emergency care for such events as heart attacks, traffic accidents, acute complications during pregnancy or infection, is often inaccessible or unavailable, resulting in a number of preventable deaths each year. The WHO initiative will address these and other "blind spots" in emergency responses that take place everywhere, every day.