APEC Chairman, Professor Andy Shennan and team nominated for prestigious innovation award

APEC is delighted to announce that the Microlife CRADLE VSA device has been nominated (from more than 500 innovations, from over fifty countries around the world), by independent experts, as one of 30 high impact innovations to save lives and a leading innovation in the maternal, child, and newborn category as part of Reimagining Global Health, the inaugural report of the Innovation Countdown 2030 initiative.

The development of this low cost monitor was led by the Chairman of APEC Professor Andy Shennan and it is hoped that it will help to save the lives of tens of thousands of women across the world at risk of pre eclampsia. Figures show that worldwide 76,000 women and half a million babies die every year due to pre eclampsia – often because the disease is not detected *. The VSA monitor has been specifically designed for use in low income countries where these deaths most commonly occur.

To date over 5,000 of the devices have been sent to over 10 different countries.

Pictured: Taking blood pressures at APEC HQ using the VSA devices for pre eclampsia awareness day.

The devices can be provided by APEC – please contact info@apec.org.uk for more information.

(Innovation Countdown 2030 is a PATH-led initiative to identify and showcase lifesaving innovations with great promise to transform global health by 2030 and to help accelerate progress toward the new health targets proposed in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal)s.
*. Kuklina EV, et al. Hypertensive Disorders and Severe Obstetric Morbidity in the United States. Obstet Gynecol 2009; 113:1299-306