IMPULSE

In July 2021 the Chiesi Foundation funded and supported, IMPULSE – Improving Quality and Use of Newborn Indicators.

IMPULSE is a two-phase research project led by the consortium of Burlo Garofalo WHO Collaborating Centre, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and CUAMM Doctors with Africa and developed in collaboration with the World Health Organization and UNICEF. The research aims to generate evidence on effective and sustainable tools and methods for improving availability, quality, and use of newborn data in sub-Saharan Africa and, by doing so, contribute to improving health and wellbeing of every newborn, particularly those who are small, sick and admitted for hospital care.

This work is a direct response to the urgent need for critical data to drive change and end preventable newborn mortality, currently a figure of 2.4 million deaths per year. The Sustainable Development Goal target 3.2 is for all countries to reduce neonatal mortality to no more than 12 per 1,000 live births before 2030 and ‘leave no-one behind’. Data is urgently needed to accelerate actions in high mortality settings across Sub-Saharan Africa, where some countries are projected to reach this SDG target over 100 years from now. In four different African countries, IMPULSE will contribute towards improving neonatal data quality and use, with the final objective of informing policies for improving care and outcomes for newborns and their families.

The IMPULSE project represents a crucial milestone for the Chiesi Foundation and is the result of a deep reflection on the role of scientific research within the programmes supported by the Foundation. In 2019 we decided to strategically refocus our research programme to increase our impact in the field of global health, aligning with our commitment to improve neonatal care in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs).