Although infant mortality rates in India have come down significantly over the last decade[1], the country still reports the highest infant mortality rate in the world. Of the three million neonatal deaths which happened globally in 2012, thirty three percent occurred in India alone. The survival of a newborn in India is not simply a…

The Safe Care, Saving Lives program launched in partnership with the Aarogyasri Health Care Trust in 2014 is designed to save newborn lives, reducing the neonatal and perinatal mortality rate in India by fifteen percent over a four year period. Currently, more than 680,000 newborn babies die every year in India. It is the highest…

In November 2016, Aarogyasri Health Care Trust, Commissioner Health and Family Welfare and ACCESS Health International organized the third Safe Care, Saving Lives learning session in Hyderabad at the Indian Institute of Health and Family Health. Staff from fifteen facilities participated in the session. Those facilities were all based in Telangana are are part of…

When Fatima* was seven months pregnant, there was despair instead of joy among family and doctors surrounding her. Her baby was expected to be born prematurely and was thus at risk of respiratory disorders, underdevelopment, and even death. Luckily for Fatima, she was being treated at Sangareddy District Hospital in Telangana, India. There, a Quality…

This piece originally appeared in The Huffington Post. In life, the simplest solutions are often the best. When it comes to healthcare, they’re also almost always the cheapest. It’s striking then that we so often choose complex, costly, and ineffective healthcare solutions when more straightforward fixes exist. This is part of why I founded ACCESS…

New milestone for feeding a new born is set at ten minutes This blog is coauthored by Vishal Abhishek, Vivek Gupta and Vikrant Prabhakar of ACCESS Health India. They write about how the Niloufer Hospital demonstrates success through quality improvement. The Niloufer Hospital is part of the Safe Care, Saving Lives program. Breast milk is…

This is part of a series of profiles of the dedicated individuals behind the Safe Care, Saving Lives project. Safe Care, Saving Lives is a quality improvement project to improve neonatal care in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. See the previous post in the series. “I was born in a conventional family in Mahbubnagar. Fortunately, my parents were forward…

This blog is coauthored by Sujata Rao, Gayatri Emani, Santhosh Kraleti, and Vikrant Prabhakar of ACCESS Health India. They write about how the King George Hospital Quality Improvement team came together to drive success through quality improvement. King George Hospital is part of the Safe Care, Saving Lives program. The Safe Care, Saving Lives program is an…

This blog is coauthored by Sujata Rao and Vikrant Prabhakar of ACCESS Health India.  They write about how the Nalgonda District Hospital demonstrates success through quality improvement. The Nalgonda District Hospital is part of the Safe Care, Saving Lives program. Nalgonda District Hospital demonstrates success through quality improvement The UNICEF report on child survival below…

Comments from Vrishali Shekhar and Anuradha Katyal of ACCESS Health International on Health and Nutrition India ranks second to last of one hundred thirty four countries in gender equality in health (World Economic Forum, 2010). This highlights the opportunity to improve gender sensitization toward framing health policies in India. From a gender perspective framework, the…