M-SCAN

According to World Health Organization, approximately 810 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth every day. Up to a half of risk factors for a poor maternal outcome can be detected earlier on during pregnancy by ultrasound and a mother is referred for care in time for the required medical intervention. 94% of all maternal deaths occur in low and lower middle-income countries.

Maternal mortality is unacceptably high. Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia accounted for approximately 86% (254 000) of the estimated global maternal deaths in 2017. Sub-Saharan Africa alone accounted for roughly two-thirds (196 000) of maternal deaths, while Southern Asia accounted for nearly one-fifth (58 000). 

Up to 90% of mothers in rural Africa deliver without ever receiving a sonogram. Risk factors like a cord around the neck of a baby, having a placenta attached in the way of the baby, a baby with a big head among others go on unnoticed. 

Most mothers who die would benefit from a sonogram. Up to 50% of risk factors of maternal mortality can be detected earlier on during pregnancy and these deaths averted.

However there is a challenge to access and affordability of ultrasound scan services especially for rural or resource limited settings especially in refugee settlements where the big  and expensive machines that are power consuming can not be applied. 

M-SCAN is a portable ultrasound probe that works on a laptop, phone or tablet to detect risk factors of maternal mortality among pregnant mothers in rural areas. It is 10 times cheaper than the existing big ultrasound machines, power efficient for refuge settlements in Uganda and across the continent.

With the M-SCAN probe in your bag, one can do sonograms for pregnant mothers in any setting by plugging into the phone or laptop.

This enables the democratization of access to life saving ultrasound services to pregnant mothers who would have never gotten a scan in their lifetime.

Our target population have been pregnant mothers in rural Uganda to include fragile areas such as refugee camps. We have deployed over 10 devices in refugee camps of Palabek and Bidi Bidi refugee camp, one of the biggest refugee settlement in the world. These mothers have to trek long distances moving from their refugee settlements to towns where they can access an ultrasound scan. They spend money on transport to and from and for the scan and this eats away into their meager household income.

In a survey done by the M-SCAN team in Bidi Bidi refugee settlement, the largest refugee settlement in the world, there was no single ultrasound device. Most mothers in such fragile contexts carry to term with risk factors of maternal mortality like a cord around the neck, a placenta in the way of the baby, a baby with a big head among others. M-SCAN has been able to push down the price and make ultrasound in antenatal care affordable and accessible to mothers in resource limited and fragile spaces. 

M-SCAN also deployed an M-SCAN product bundle that is a laptop and probe in Bukwe district which is a mountainous and border district between Uganda and Kenya. Local staff were then trained in the use of ultrasound courtesy of M-SCAN.

MSCAN has brought down the cost while increasing access of ultrasound scans for pregnant mothers in hard to reach and resource limited settings such as refugee camps. 

We have also brought a positive experience around pregnancy as mothers can be rest assured that them and the baby are well. 

To date, MSCAN has provided over 4,000 ultrasound scans to pregnant mothers in rural Uganda and 14.4% rate of detection of complications. 

Ahimbisibwe Prosper is a medical doctor a graduate from Makerere University with 5 years experience in medical practice. He serves as the Clinical Lead at M-SCAN Uganda where he is in charge of clinical protocols, regulatory issues, strategy and documentation. 

Menyo Innocent is a medical radiographer, a graduate from Makerere University with 6 years experience in imaging modalities like ultrasound , MRI,Xray among others. He serves as the Team Lead where he is in charge of financials and overseeing day to day operations. Currently he is enrolled for a Master of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. 

Phyllis Kyomuhendo is a medical radiographer a graduate from Makerere University who serves as the Impact Lead at M-SCAN. She has 6 years experience in medical imaging and a Master of Public health from the University of South Wales. 

Nasasira Ivan is a information systems analyst by training from Makerere University. At M-SCAN Uganda, he serves as the technology lead where he in charge of company software needs and connectivity of all pilot sites.

To date we have scanned over 4,000 pregnant women with a 14.4% rate of detection of complications. 

We are scaling our solution to refugee settlements and excited to work with MIT and receive funding to scale our works. 

Following our recent partnerships with the International Rescue Committee and Save the Children in deploying M-SCAN devices in Palabek refugee settlement, we have loads of learning to incorporate in our next deployments in other refugee settlements. 

M-SCAN devices through an OTG cable can connect to both devices of 2.0 USB ports and devices of 3.0 USB ports making us special and unique from existing probes that are selective in connectivity. 

Our devices work offline with ability and capabilities to reach fragile contexts such as refugee settlements. 

For the next one year, we plan on performing over 38,400 ultrasound scans for mothers in refugee communities. This is through deploying more ten ultrasound probes to make 16 probes in refugee settlements. One probe performs a minimum of 10 ultrasound scans a day making it 2400 scans per year per probe. 

Through a grant from MIT, we shall be able to make the deployment of more probes. 

In the next five years, we plan to roll out over 500 devices in fragile communities and rural communities, urban. This will be done through full commercialization of the M-SCAN device. Through this we hope to perform atleast 1.25 million scans for pregnant mothers who would have never gotten an ultrasound scan. 

Key Performance Indicators include;

1. Number of scans done

2. Number of complications detected

3. Number of life saving interventions done following M-SCAN scan reports. 

We recently gave a talk at the UN with emphasis on SDG3&5 and are currently hosted on the UN Website under an SDG Acceleration Action. 

M-SCAN has increased access and lowered the cost of pregnant mothers accessing an ultrasound scan.

M-SCAN has on top of that pioneered the training of midwives and clinicians in the use of ultrasound scans.

This increases the number of pregnant mothers in rural areas who ideally would never receive an ultrasound in their antenatal. Risk factors of maternal mortality like a cord around the neck of the baby, placenta previa among other are detected much earlier in pregnancy and a proper safe delivery is put in place. More pregnant mothers are able to schedule and receive the required medical intervention like  a ceaserian section.

This also leads to a positive experience in pregnancy and a better outcome for both the mother and the baby.

Our probes are made of pizoelectric crystals with a digital signal processing chip that coverts ultrasound waves into a digital image of a baby on the screen. 

We have carried out over 10 pilots across Uganda in rural settings, deployed over 20 devices in rural limited settings to include Palabek refugee settlment and all these work and we receive data from the trained midwives.

The core team is made up of a female who is a cofounder and serves as the impact lead for M-SCAN. 

In the recruitment of sales and marketing agents, M-SCAN included a female to join the company and lead the team.

While training frontline health workers in the use of ultrasound, MSCAN ensured diversity by prioritizing female midwives. We have trained two midwives in the use of obstetric ultrasound to detect risk factors of maternal mortality.

We have also partnered and worked with different ethnicities across the globe to include students from Humans2Humans with a number citizens of Japan, United States of America, Philipine, Nigeria and so many others.