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The Ghana Health Service (GHS) and Jacaranda Health, a non-governmental organisation, are expected to fully scale up the “PROMPTS” initiative across all 29 districts of the Greater Accra Region from the second half, next year.
The “Prompting Moms in Pregnancy and Postpartum through SMS” (PROMPTS) intervention, leverages digital platforms to support women through their pregnancy journey while providing real-time information on their experiences of care for improved service delivery.
Following a successful pilot of PROMPTS in three health facilities within the region since January 2023, the scale up is expected to complement efforts at strengthening quality maternal care and further reduce Ghana’s maternal mortality ratio (MMR) which stands at 310 per 100,000 live births, way above the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended MMR for 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030.
The Director-General of GHS, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye speaking at a dissemination forum of a research that looked into the feasibility and acceptability of PROMPTS within the healthcare system, indicated that the results so far from the pilot were positive.
According to him, the intervention exemplified how innovation and technology could help address critical health challenges like MMR.
“By leveraging artificial intelligence and a short messaging system, PROMPTS has provided women attended antenatal and postnatal visits to our facilities with timely, relevant and actionable health information.
This intervention does not just inform, it empowers women to make informed decisions and facilitates their access to the necessary care,” he said.
Dr Kuma-Aboagye expressed the commitment of the Service to collaborate with policy makers and stakeholders in the health sector to improve service delivery at all levels.
“Technology innovators will be key to achieving this goal and we remain committed to exploring such innovative solutions that can transform lives.
Together, we can build a healthcare system that is inclusive, equitable, accessible and resilient,” he stated.
Dr John Williams, the former Director of the Dodowa Health Research Centre and Principal Investigator for the GHS Network of Practice (NoP) Implementation Research Group, presenting findings of the pilot study, said about 60 frontline health workers have been trained and 1,000 new and expecting mothers enrolled unto the intervention as of April 2024.
According to him, PROMPTS demonstrated significant potential in improving maternal and child health outcomes in the country as it supplements in-person health education.
“PROMPTS should continue to complement rather than replace in-person care, serving as a bridge between health facilities and patients in their communities,” he advised.
For his part, the PROMPTS Field Programme Coordinator, Mr John Hammond, said by the end of the first quarter in 2025, PROMPTS will be deployed fully in one district in the Greater Accra Region.
“A full regional scale up, will be done by the second half of 2025 to empower Ghanaian mothers with information to seek care at the right time and place,” he said.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
