DGHI, ABC News issue challenge to fight women dying in childbirth

posted March 8th, 2011

University students around the world are being issued a challenge by ABC News and the Duke Global Health Institute: design solutions that prevent women worldwide from dying during childbirth.

Around the world, 350,000 women die each year of complications due to childbirth. In the vast majority of cases, the causes are preventable: severe bleeding, infection, obstructed labor and other problems that can be averted with skilled care and improved technology.

ABC News' Be the Change: Save a Life and the Duke Global Health Institute, in partnership with The Lemelson Foundation, have established prize awards to those undergraduate, graduate and professional students who design some innovation in maternal health care. That could include finding ways to improve health care delivery or designing an inventive piece of technology for low-tech clinics and home delivery.

The challenge encourages students from around the world to submit a five-minute video explaining their big idea for improving maternal health.

Three finalists will be selected and one winning individual or team will receive $10,000 and the opportunity to work with experts to develop and test the idea in the field. The Lemelson Foundation will connect the winner with its partners, who will offer mentorship support in the development, marketing and distribution process. The winner also will be invited to present his or her work before global health experts at November’s Consortium of Universities for Global HealthConference in Montreal, Canada.

An international panel of global health experts will select the winning entry based on the innovation, potential impact and feasibility of the idea. More information about the challenge guidelines and criteria.  Entries will be accepted at that site through April 29. Winners will be announced in early May.

For updates on the competition, follow #maternalchallenge or visit “Be the Change: Save a Life” on Facebook.

Learn more about Be the Change: Save a Life initiative at ABC News. To learn more about the Duke Global Health Institute, visit http://globalhealth.duke.edu. To learn more about The Lemelson Foundation, visit http://www.lemelson.org. The media contact for The Lemelson Foundation is Carrie Barnes, (215) 239-4643.