Protecting Infants Remotely by SMS (PRISMS) is a mobile phone application that runs on android powered devices to empower frontline health workers (or any non-specialist doctors) to effectively manage sick or at risk newborn babies between 0-28 days.
It allows a health worker to input all sick newborn assessment findings and send a message. In a turnaround time of 7 seconds, a health worker gets a management plan that has details on how they can care for the sick baby. These plans are similar to what a pediatrician or neonatologist would have provided for the same case. This was proven during our first pilot study that was conducted in Uganda in different health facilities where pediatricians and PRISMS managed similar sick newborn cases. There was 100% agreement between the two management plans after comparison. We therefore believe that PRISMS has potentials to harmonize standard of care and reduce neonatal mortality in limited resource settings.