On May 12, 2022, PATH’s Living Labs team in Kenya—together with the National Vaccines and Immunization Program (NVIP) and a group of health care workers—jointly held an exhibition to showcase health solutions that they cocreated to address longstanding challenges.
In addition to health care providers from Nairobi, Turkana, Kilifi, Nakuru, Kiambu, and Tharaka Nithi counties, the exhibition was also attended by government officials representing family health, county directors of health, county reproductive health coordinators, and Expanded Programme on Immunization leads from all the six counties, as well as representatives of different implementing organizations, donors, and other local stakeholders. This was the second such exhibition after the team successfully held one in February 2022 which brought together stakeholders from Kisumu, Migori, and Kakamega counties.
The PATH Living Labs team has been working with health departments in these six counties to conduct human-centered design (HCD) activities to co-create solutions for different health areas including: the motivation of immunization service providers; the newborn nutrition digital accelerator kit; the Diabetes CarePak for people living with diabetes; market dynamics for maternal, neonatal, and child health Medical Devices (MD4MD) management system; and the community health volunteers digital symptoms checklist.
These efforts generated simple but innovative solutions that were showcased at the exhibition in Nairobi, which aimed to:
- Give frontline immunization service providers a platform to share their perspectives on proposed solutions for addressing long-standing challenges in delivering health services.
- Generate interest in, and progress priority solutions to, the next stage of prototyping.
- Advance partnerships with the Ministry of Health(MOH) and explore opportunities for collaboration with other stakeholders.
Partnering for immunization
This groundbreaking innovation work by Living Labs was done under the guidance of the relevant MOH departments to define a design challenge, identify users and stakeholders to engage, and conduct the actual human-centered design activities at the national and subnational levels.
PATH worked closely with the NVIP on activities related to strengthening the motivation of frontline immunization service providers, and the majority of solutions that were exhibited such as the Immunization Register Coding concept are aimed at improving delivery of immunization services.
“The Immunization Register Coding concept has made it easy to locate clients’ details in a matter of seconds, so I use more time offering services”— Damaris Onduru, Nurse,Nairobi County, Kenya
Partnering beyond immunization
In addition to immunization solutions, Living Labs also targets other health areas. PATH worked with the health workers at Pumwani Maternity Hospital to co-create the Newborn Nutrition Digital Adaptation Kit for vulnerable newborns. This kit will transform and streamline data collection for decision-making to optimize the provision of lifesaving human milk in the first hours of a baby’s life, delivering the critical care and nutrition needed.
“Some of the solutions expand to health areas beyond immunization. For instance, we have co-created a prototype of a digital appointment scheduling tool that could potentially be used for scheduling across a variety of health areas”— Dr. Andrew Mulwa, Director, Medical Services, Ministry of Health Kenya
The exhibition was a momentous occasion that elevated the voices of health workers by providing a unique opportunity to engage with health leaders across the country. The MOH expressed excitement to continue to partner with PATH in his unique methodology to design and adapt sustainable interventions that promise to advance health equity.
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