By Prisca Sam-Duru

Despite global advancements in reducing maternal mortality, Nigeria continues to face a critical challenge, with the highest maternal mortality rate in Africa at 512 per 100,000 live births.

 In Lagos, maternal mortality remains a significant concern, attributed to factors such as limited access to quality healthcare, shortages of medical professionals, delays in seeking care, and socio-cultural barriers.

In a bid to drastically reduce the maternal mortality rate, mDoc Healthcare in partnership with the Lagos State Ministry of Health and with support from MSD for Mothers, launched The Digital Mom Project, a scalable whole system model aimed at digitally enabling and empowering women in Nigeria to enhance their maternal health outcomes and access to comprehensive healthcare.

With a focus on empowering low to middle-income women in Lagos and Ekiti States, the project aims to improve maternal health outcomes like improved blood pressure and blood glucose metrics by 20% through AI-driven technology.

The project is supported by funding from MSD, through MSD for Mothers, the company’s global initiative to help create a world where no woman has to die while giving life. The Digital Mom Project was designed to enhance women’s physical, emotional, and financial well-being through virtual and in-person self-care support; establish a Virtual Learning Network focused on improving maternal health systems’ quality at public and private facilities; promoting high-quality and equitable maternity care, and deploy a woman-centric digital review system to elevate women’s voices in order to improve the experience of quality care; and facilitate quality and women-centered care. The project was unveiled last week at The Colossus Hotel Ikeja, Lagos, where relevant stakeholders in the public and private sectors, including Technical Working Groups, Partner Organizations, and Healthcare facilities, brainstormed on implementation plans, fostering collaboration and synergy among key stakeholders.

Pharm. Chiagozie Abiakam, Manager at mDoc, emphasized that “the project is in response to the challenge of maternal mortality while building on the successes of prior initiatives like RICOM3, Integrate E, and Project Aisha, funded by MSD for Mothers, which showcased the transformative impact of technology-driven interventions on maternal health outcomes.

“By leveraging AI-powered technology and adopting a holistic approach to healthcare training, service delivery, and patient education, the project aims to empower over 200,000 low to middle-income women to build their health, digital, and financial literacy as well as build capacity of 3,000 healthcare workers across public and private healthcare facilities with a focus on NCDs over a 30-month period from 2023 to 2025.”

Abiakam further stated that by recognising the diversity in digital access, the project will utilise NudgeHubs, such as the one established in Balogun market, Ikorodu, and Lekki, as well as mDoc roving community ambassadors. This strategy ensures that women’s digital, health, and financial literacy are prioritized, ensuring access for all women to essential self-care services.

The meeting was attended by stakeholders including; the MD of General Hospital, Ikorodu, Dr. Hassan; Iyadunni Olubode, Director of Programs, MSD for Mothers; Ota Akhigbe, Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria (PSHAN) and many others.

mDoc is a digital health social enterprise that integrates proven methodologies in quality improvement, data, and behavioural science with web and mobile-based technology to help people live longer, happier, and healthier lives.