At this year’s Global Digital Health Forum, Jacaranda Health brought together a panel of data leaders, implementers, and facilitators: from Kenya’s Ministry of Health to county champions, Ghana Health Service, MSD for Mothers, and Touch Health. We asked a simple but urgent question: how do we turn health data into real change for mothers and newborns?
From left to right: Iyadunni Olubode, MSD for Mothers, Nigeria, Ebenezer Addo Amanor, Family Health Division, Ghana Health Service, Valerio Parisi, Chief Program Officer, Touch Health, Tanzania, Dr. Stephen Mwatha, Dir. Preventive & Promotive Health Services, Makueni County (Kenya), Sieglinder Mghenyi, Head of Health System Strengthening, Jacaranda Health, Dr. Joyce Wamicwe, Technical Lead for Digital Health and Informatics, Ministry of Health, Kenya, Cynthia Kahumbura, Co-Executive Director, Jacaranda Health Photo Credits: Peter Thira
Here are five takeaways from our panelists Dr. Joyce Wamicwe, Dr. Stephen Mwatha, Iyadunni Olubode, Sieglinger Mghenyi, Valerio Parisi, and Ebenezer Amanor.
- Real-time data beats reporting every time
Health systems are evolving quickly, and preventing maternal and newborn deaths often depends on spotting and responding to emerging gaps before they become patterns. Transactional, real-time data makes it possible to detect issues that are otherwise invisible, from delayed referrals to complications that spike in specific facilities, and to act while change is still possible.
Panelists pointed to how near-real-time data is enabling faster maternal death reviews, more targeted follow-up, and quicker course correction at facility, county, and national levels.
- The frontline must own the data, not just report it
Data improves care when it stays close to where care is delivered. When frontline providers can see and interpret their own data, it becomes a tool for identifying gaps, advocating for resources, and adjusting practice in real time.
Examples from Tanzania and Makueni County in Kenya showed how provider-facing tools can drive action: in Tanzania, discharge data is used to flag high-risk newborns for post-discharge follow-up and teleconsultations, while in Makueni, digital facility quality assessments have helped teams surface equipment and staffing gaps and successfully advocate for resources before care is compromised
Data becomes power when the frontline holds the pen.
- Data works where leaders use it
Every speaker underscored this: Strong leadership turns dashboards into decisions. Counties with engaged leadership are using data to ask better questions, shift resources, and scale interventions that improve maternal and newborn outcomes.
Panelists pointed to Makueni County, where leaders used facility and mortality data to identify postpartum hemorrhage as a leading cause of maternal death, pilot heat-stable carbetocin (a medicine used to prevent and treat severe bleeding after childbirth) across facilities, and commit county funds to scale the intervention beyond the initial pilot.
- Co-create or collapse
If an innovation isn’t built with government from day one, it won’t last. When digital tools and interventions are co-designed from the outset, they are more likely to align with national priorities, fit within public budgets, and integrate into existing systems.
“If you build in a corner and present later, sustainability never gets off the ground.”
Across the panel, funders and implementers emphasized that sustainability depends on early government ownership, and on innovators being willing to hand over solutions so systems, not projects, can carry them forward.
- Data → Insight → Action (the missing middle matters)
Panelists described how insight is created through deliberate mechanisms, including routine data review meetings, real-time maternal and perinatal death audits, visual dashboards, and community scorecards, that force teams to interpret data together and decide what to do next, rather than stopping at reporting.
If we’re serious about reducing preventable maternal and newborn deaths, insight, not information, must become the norm.
A final note
The session opened with a reminder: 16 women and 92 newborns die every day in Kenya. These aren’t just numbers. They’re the reason every person on that panel does this work. At Jacaranda Health, this is exactly what we’re seeing through tools like PULSE, where counties are using real-time dashboards to identify gaps in care, prioritize action, and track improvements across maternal and newborn services.
And if this conversation showed anything, it’s that when we use data differently (i.e., faster, locally, and collectively) those numbers can change.
Watch the full session here.