Karnataka health department collaborates with C-CAMP, Infosys Foundation for maternal, neonatal care

Bengaluru: The health department on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) and Infosys Foundation to implement their ‘C-CAMP-Infosys Foundation Project Early Life’ for enhanced maternal and neonatal care in Karnataka. 

The initiative was first announced during the state government’s roundtable discussion on November 8, 2023, in collaboration with C-CAMP. Now, this is being funded by the Infosys Foundation and facilitated by C-CAMP to enable the early adoption of healthcare technology at grassroots levels across these districts. 

This project involves the deployment of two tools: a foetal monitoring technology in district hospitals and community health centres and a neonatal Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) device to provide respiratory support to newborn babies across critical care newborn units in district and taluk hospitals. This will also aim to address the rising cases of neonatal mortality in the state. 

As a pilot, these two tools are being rolled out in Dharwad, Vijayanagar, and Ballari first. Over the next four years, this will be rolled out in five more districts to cover a total of eight districts and is expected to benefit between 50,000 to 1 lakh women and 4,000 newborn babies. 

“Bringing down the rate of neonatal mortality in the state is our goal. The health department is working with various organisations to implement new technological tools in this regard,” said Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao.