Neosave Technologies has been at the hem of the rigorous development of her life-saving solution Autothermo. Designed with thoughtful consideration of the need for continuous vital sign monitoring for babies in low and middle income communities. Autothermo’s near completion of development beams a ray of light in as far as improving physician response to medical emergencies is concerned, through provision of real-time audio-visual alerts, thereby reducing infant mortality.
Following successful inhouse tests, a team from Neosave (with prior permission), on Friday 19th July, 2025, ventured out to Kinoni Health Center IV, Mbarara District to conduct clinical user engagement. The purpose of the engagement activity was to assess health workers’ (doctors, nurses, midwives, clinicians’) receptiveness to the adoption of Autothermo to their daily workflow and also have a practical usability demonstration to the group.
The activity, thus featured a lecture about Autothermo’s purpose, practical usage of the system and possible impact it can have in improving neonatal survival, as well as easing the burden of work on the health-service providers, especially in settings with high patient to doctor ratio.
An expert guided usability session, involving a clinician at Kinoni Health Center IV. This involved, a step-by-step hands-on tutorial in which the health worker is shown how to clerk a patient upon into the system upon admission, assign an Autothermo device and perform monitoring of vital signs from the intuitive dashboard on the screen.
The engagement activity also featured an interactive session with mothers in the maternal ward to sensitize and obtain their opinion about the usage of Autothermo to help them better monitor the health of their babies using Autothermo. The session also involved the use of questionnaire-guided interview by which their opinions were obtained concerning their receptiveness of Autothermo, their receptiveness to its use, as well as their preferences in perspective with pricing. During the session, the Autothermo device was tried on babies to demonstrate it’s fit, comfort and usability.
Data collected during the activity has been consolidated, and will be used to inform crucial decisions in conduction of the clinical tests this August, and to compliment poste clinical trial design refinement to improve functionality, usability and affordability of Autothermo as we strive to improve neonatal survival using technology.