Better healthcare for Africa!

Supporting health workers and improving healthcare in Africa!

Urgency
Each year 5 million children die before their fifth birthday, despite effective and affordable treatments being available. An estimated 55% of child deaths and 66% of newborn deaths could be prevented through improved quality of care in African healthcare settings. Effective and affordable treatments are available at healthcare clinics, but patients are not treated on time simply due to inadequate monitoring of patients caused by a shortage of staff and equipment. As a result of delayed treatment, patients experience increased complications requiring more time and resources to solve, and often still have poor outcomes. Every hour delay in detecting conditions like sepsis causes a 10% increase in mortality risk.

Solution
To address these challenges, GOAL 3 (founded mission-driven) developed the IMPALA system: a comprehensive patient monitoring solution to support health workers working in low-resource settings, mainly in Africa. It consists of:

• The IMPALA monitoring device: an easy-to-use vital sign continuous monitoring device designed for African settings.
• The IMPALA server: Robust and fit-for-context communication and data infrastructure with backup power that provides a local network to connect the IMPALA devices and ensures safe data storage without the need for the Internet.
• The IMPALA clinical application is a tablet-based central patient overview that is connected to the monitors and gives healthcare workers ultimate control over their wards. It has alarms for when patients go outside expected vital sign ranges.

These three technologies (known as the IMPALA System) enable health workers to monitor their patients better in understaffed facilities, allowing them to prioritize time and resources and intervene at an early stage when treatments are more effective and low-cost. This saves lives, but also allows patients to recover faster. By reducing the time patients are in the hospital, IMPALA contributes to saving costs as well as reducing workload.

“I have noticed a decrease of patients that have choked for unknown reasons in the ward. And now with the monitors we have a lot less patients that bounce back and forth between HDU and the general ward after stopping treatment because the monitors help us with de-escalation of care and monitor patients if they keep doing well after stopping treatment.” – Dr. Jessica Chikwana – Pediatrician Zomba Central Hospital, Malawi and among the first users of the IMPALA system

Impact
After the first 7 months of use in St. Luke’s Hospital in Malawi, very promising results were seen compared to the same period one year before. Mortality in the pediatric ward dropped by 59%, while time in the hospital (admission time) was reduced by half a day per child, leading to significant cost reductions for the hospital and patients. Additionally, health workers perceived a decreased workload, leading to a strong adoption of the IMPALA System.

For the next 4 hospitals, we are aiming to have a child mortality reduction of 10-20%, leading to saving an additional 20-40 lives every year for an average district hospital.

“ With the IMPALA System it is easy for us to detect and manage complications and the patients can go home alive” – Martha Mpunga (Malawian Nurse)

Project costs
Unfortunately, despite all the benefits of the IMPALA  system, Hospitals often cannot afford the upfront capital expense of the monitors, training, and infrastructure. As these investments cost tens of thousands of euros, depending on the size of the ward. Together with MissionInvest, GOAL 3 plans to equip 4 more hospitals with the IMPALA system, scaling to 10+ hospitals active. For this project, donations totaling €200,000 are needed, split out in around €100,000 for hardware infrastructure, €20,000 for training, installation, €45,000 for software and service support, and €35,000 for project management, travel, and overhead. This project will give the hospitals a major push in reducing child mortality and improving the quality of care.

MissionInvest is very excited about this great and innovative project. We are seeking €100,000 donations through our network in the Netherlands and Europe; the other €100,000 will be raised through MissionInvest USA.

Would you consider donating to help unburden healthcare workers and reduce child mortality? Your gift not only saves children’s lives, but also will save hospitals money – allowing them to reinvest in more life-saving staff and technology.

About GOAL 3 Foundation
The GOAL 3 Foundation is aligned with GOAL 3, a Dutch social enterprise, founded in 2019. It was named after sustainable development goal 3, reflecting our mission and ambition to make a global impact on access to quality care by 2030. We combine health-tech innovation with new business models to create sustainable, accessible, and scalable solutions that address systemic challenges in under-resourced health systems. We consist of an experienced team of 15 people with a diverse background. We have an office in the Netherlands and in Rwanda and are active in Malawi, Rwanda, and Tanzania.