Neonatal innovations in resource-limited settings

Abstract

In the year 2000, Millennium Declaration was signed by the world leaders to reduce the under-5 mortality rate by two-thirds from the baseline figure in 1990. Millennium Development Goal 4 was replaced by the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) in 2015. Reduction in the neonatal mortality, which accounts for majority of the deaths in children under the age of 5 years, was an imminent goal of SDG. Despite these initiatives, the current trends in neonatal mortality are far away from the expected targets. To curb the rate of neonatal mortality, the neonatal services are expanding in India at a rapid pace. To bridge the gap between the availability and accessibility to the health care technology between the developed and developing countries, the current focus is toward the development of low-cost and effective technological innovations in neonatal care and ensuring their patenting and effective publicity. This should facilitate the translation of innovations into mass production and availability for practice with significant effect in low- and middle-income countries. Generation of evidence will increase the acceptability of these innovations by demonstrating their benefit over the currently available technologies. Fortuitously, India has developed many innovations in the neonatal health care. However, majority of the neonatologists are still unaware of the existing technological solutions, and the ways to optimally utilize them. This review is, therefore, an attempt to recognize such low-cost, effective, and sustainable innovations done in the field of neonatology, over the past few decades.