Sickle Cell Foundation: CommCare for Mitigating Child Deaths from Hereditary Disease

Every year, upwards of 400,000 children are born with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD), a genetic disease that stiffens red blood cells and distorts their normal round shape, causing many complications including, frequent episodes of pain, acute lung injury, stroke, overwhelming infection, and chronic organ damage. Three-quarters of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa. Further, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 70% of deaths associated with SCD are preventable with simple, cost-effective interventions, such as early detection through newborn screening and the subsequent provision of comprehensive care.

Since 2017, Dimagi has partnered with the Sickle Cell Foundation of Ghana (SCFG) to support the National Newborn Screening Program (NNSP) by digitizing its paper forms and serving as a job aid to its users. To date, more than 12,500 newborns have been registered through the mobile application at six sites across two districts in Ghana.