Our Plan

NEST360° is based on the idea that a holistic strategy and a bundling of both newborn care and market services are key to sustainably reduce newborn deaths in sub-Saharan African hospitals. The NEST plan was born from our desire to build a platform that will reduce newborn mortality rates in nations across the world.

4-Gap Approach

Launched in 2019, NEST360° will optimize, deploy, and scale rugged and affordable technologies for comprehensive newborn care; train current and future clinic staff on the use and maintenance of these tools, and educate the next generation of innovators; provide new tools and evidence to facilitate widespread adoption of NEST; and shape a functional market for newborn technologies.

Participant in a skills lab training at the Malawi College of Health Sciences in Zomba, Malawi.

These 4 gaps impede the widespread adoption of comprehensive care for newborns in sub-Saharan Africa, so we've developed a comprehensive approach that directly targets these issues.

Education

We are creating a pipeline of clinical and technical innovators ready to use and sustain the NEST bundle to improve newborn outcomes. Education will focus on capacity building for clinicians, biomedical technicians, engineering, and invention. This investment in education will provide the foundation for an innovation ecosystem and for future inventions needed for long-term health systems change.

Innovation: NESTech

The NEST bundle includes a package of technologies that address the leading causes of newborn death in Africa: preterm birth, asphyxia (lack of oxygen), and infection. The package will include the most effective, affordable, and sustainable options available in the marketplace to ensure comprehensive newborn care. Technologies for eight product categories are already commercially available, with technologies for the other nine currently in development at Rice University or other organizations.

NEST360° will partner with medical, nursing, and engineering schools in NEST countries to sustain a cycle of product development and training, and to inspire the continent’s next generation of innovators to solve future health challenges.