Countries with the highest neonatal mortality burden often have the least data. Timely, accurate data are essential to improve neonatal care and track progress towards ending preventable newborn deaths.
Having comparable variables at the individual-level and using standard indicators enables hospitals and countries to compare Small and Sick Newborn Care intervention coverage and quality.
We have combined NEST360 and the African Neonatal Network (ANN) to form the largest neonatal network across Africa.
The standardisation of indicators and variables allows multi-hospital QI and multi-country learning, helping us all to go faster together in improving outcomes for newborns and their families. This is even more crucial in a world where household surveys are no longer funded.
The PANSAA data systems workstream focuses on:
We have mapped core variables across the NEST360 Neonatal Inpatient Dataset (NID) and ANN/Vermont-Oxford (VON) datasets, with the results showing:
We aim to use this data to answer priority implementation research questions codesigned with parents, clinicians, biomedical engineers, and laboratory personnel. This will directly contribute to the work being undertaken by the Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) and Neonatal Infections workstreams, while also linking to our government and UN partners.
Our three-year plan for action is structured as follows:
We have also identified an important gap for a prioritised, practical neonatal follow-up dataset to better track child development and health outcomes.