Today at the Digital Life Design conference, HP (NYSE:HPQ) and mothers2mothers (m2m), a South Africa-based nongovernmental organization, announced a new collaboration that will use the power of technology to help prevent the transmission of HIV from HIV-positive pregnant mothers in Africa to their children.

HP and mothers2mothers collaborate to prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to children in Africa, converting the paper-based patient records system into a digital community. (Photo: mothers2mothers)

New database technology and cloud and mobile services from HP will convert the current paper-based patient records system into a digital community that enables easy sharing of information across the m2m network of more than 700 sites in sub-Saharan Africa. This more efficient management system will empower counselors to provide more effective education and support services to pregnant mothers.

• The system will provide easy access to up-to-date information on patient treatment plans and advanced reporting tools to provide faster and more effective access to information. This will allow m2m to scale knowledge and best practices across its network.
• In the next phase of the program, m2m employees will be able to collect and share data via basic mobile phones, creating an ?always connected? environment. This will enable employees to collect data more efficiently from patients and, over time, will help the operation scale to meet the demands of more patients.

Unique approach to HIV prevention

m2m helps to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV through an effective, sustainable model of care. Each year, m2m counsels more than 1.5 million women in nine countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Mothers living with HIV are employed to mentor HIV-positive pregnant and new mothers in health facilities. They work side by side with doctors and nurses, supporting and educating women about how to take their medicines and care of themselves and their babies. The mothers employed by m2m come from the local communities in which they work, providing a solution to the lack of healthcare providers in Africa. These counselors help combat the stigma of HIV within the community, empowering the women they counsel and ultimately saving lives.

Background on mother-to-child transmission of HIV

Mother-to-child HIV transmission rates remain high in Africa in part due to the challenge of ensuring mothers' adherence to medical treatment. Additional facts on the scope of this issue:

• There are more than 1.3 million pregnant women living with HIV in Africa.⁽¹⁾ Without any interventions, 40 percent of those women will have HIV-positive babies.⁽²⁾
• Each year, more babies are born with HIV in one busy clinic in Africa than in the United States, Canada and England combined. Worldwide, 1.4 million pregnant women are HIV-positive. Eighty-eight percent of these women live in sub-Saharan Africa.⁽¹⁾
• Preventing the transmission of HIV from a mother to a child is straightforward. Its simplest application – a single dose of medication to a mother during labor and a dose to her infant shortly after birth – can cut transmission risk nearly in half.⁽²⁾

HP and global health

The HP global health initiative, a key part of the company's global social innovation program, aims to enrich society by using the breadth and scale of HP technology to drive structural, systemic improvements in health access and delivery. HP connects social entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations with access to mobile, cloud and enterprise technology expertise so they can build unique solutions that ultimately save lives.

HP recently announced alliances with African social enterprise mPedigree to fight counterfeit malaria drugs through an innovative mobile phone and cloud services solution, and with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) to appreciably improve the speed of HIV diagnosis for infants in Kenya.

Supporting quotes

?mothers2mothers now helps more than 1.5 million women each year. With technological expertise from HP, we can modernize our paper-based infrastructure to a highly efficient digital model, allowing us to meet the growing demand for our services and put information directly into the hands of our Mentor Mothers. This new system will enable us to serve women much more effectively through improved knowledge and insight.?

- Gene Falk, co-founder and chief executive officer, mothers2mothers

?Global health is one of the last frontiers for IT transformation and holds immense promise for significant improvement to the quality of care available through the appropriate application and use of technology. With mothers2mothers' rich understanding of health challenges in Africa, we can transform the lives of women in Africa and provide greater hope in winning the fight against HIV/AIDS.?

- Gabriele Zedlmayer, vice president, Office of Global Social Innovation, HP

Supporting resources

• Images of the mothers2mothers facilities
• HP Data Central contributed blog post by Gene Falk, CEO and co-founder, mothers2mothers
• Video: Gabriele Zedlmayer discusses HP's Office of Global Social Innovation
• Video interview with Gene Falk, mothers2mothers

About HP

HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world's largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP is available at http://www.hp.com.

(1) ?Towards universal access: Scaling up priority HIV/AIDS interventions in the health sector,? World Health Organization, September 2010.

(2) ?Preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT),? Avert.

© 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

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