Jane Muthoni has lived with type 1 diabetes since she was 6 years old, but she didn’t know how to manage it until her second pregnancy. It’s one reason she made it her life’s work to educate others living with the disease.

作为病人的参与潜在客户Medtronic Labsⁱ在肯尼亚，她在农村社区经营支持团体。她还培训了一群关键的人 - 社区卫生工作者（CHW），几乎所有这些都是女性。188bet网址怎么打不开

At least 120,000ⁱⁱpeople die from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Kenya each year. As deaths NCDs continue to rise across Africaⁱⁱⁱ, Medtronic LABS’ model of pairing tech with community health workers is more important than ever.

Community health programs like this are one of the most effective strategies to improve access to quality healthcare in rural and remote areas.^iv

像Muthoni和她训练的CHW这样的女性对这一任务至关重要。

Women make up the majority of community health workers in the 10 countries where LABS works. And globally, seven out of 10 health and social care workers are women.^v

穆托尼说：“妇女的重要性甚至无法衡量。”

Tech-enabled community care

Two-thirds of all deaths in low and middle-income countries are due to NCDs. In Kenya alone, where LABSrecently expandedto a national scale, around 6 million people are living with hypertension and diabetes, said Ruchika Singhal, President of Medtronic LABS.

Kenyans once considered hypertension and diabetes as diseases that only affect the rich, but many are starting to see the effects of NCDs in their own villages and in their own families. But there is only one physician per 1,000 people^vi在超过5400万的国家，其中许多人生活在难以到达的地方。

LABS is addressing this barrier to care by training over 300 CHWs to screen patients for hypertension and diabetes and use LABS’ digital health platform,SPICE, which was designed for community health workers and healthcare providers operating in low-resource settings.

该技术平台可帮助简化患者和医疗保健从业人员的护理，如果该领域的血压读数高，他们会受到警觉。仪表板是第一个实时跟踪健康成果和人口健康指标的同类产品。

授权患者

But CHWs aren’t just screening the 40,000 patients enrolled in theEmpower Healthprogram for hypertension and diabetes; they’re connecting them to care and regularly following up to make sure they’re managing their disease.

CHW的力量在于它们与患者和提供者建立一对一关系的能力。结果，根据世界卫生组织的说法，他们有可能改善农村社区的健康和生活质量。

Regina Lthusi sees the impact firsthand. Trained with LABS in 2021, she’s been a CHW for 10 years.

Dressed in a T-shirt with the hashtag “empower yourself” and equipped with a tablet or cell phone with SPICE, a weighing scale, blood pressure monitor, and blood glucometer, she regularly visits 20 households in her community in Makueni County.

The village is nestled on a mountain four times the height of the Empire State Building.

“As a CHW, I know that this is important because there are people who can’t reach healthcare providers,” Lthusi said. “It brings me joy because when someone knows their condition, they feel comfortable and empowered.”

Health starts at home

她将对工作的热情归功于她的“母亲”。

她说：“我是个女人，因为我从自己的家人开始，然后进入社区，”188bet网址怎么打不开

该地区的许多CHW都是如此。穆托尼说，对于肯尼亚的妇女，健康始于家庭。

非洲Medtronic Labs的伙伴关系和政府事务负责人Eric Angula说，妇女的健康行为也更高。

Many assume that women dominate the community health space because they aren’t working, but that’s just not true, he said. Many women work in small business, on farms, and in a variety of settings.

“They leave their tomatoes to check patients’ blood pressure and then go back,” he said. “That is the kind of dedication we’re seeing from women.”

毕竟，正如Muthoni所说：“赋予一名妇女权力，您将赋予整个国家权力。”

Read more about how Medtronic isaccelerating access to healthcare technology.

ⁱAn independent nonprofit organization funded by Medtronic, Medtronic Labs致力于创建技术驱动的医疗解决方案，以结合数字技术，现场运营和合作伙伴关系，以加快服务不足社区的患者访问。
ⁱⁱNoncommunicable diseases progress monitor 2022. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2022. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO
ⁱⁱⁱ非洲疾病因非洲兴起而死亡
^iv188bet网址怎么打不开社区卫生工作者：确保获得初级卫生保健服务的策略188bet上不了
^vBoniol M，McIsaac M，Xu L，Wuliji T，Diallo K，Campbell J.卫生劳动力中的性别平等：104个国家的分析。工作文件1.日内瓦：世界卫生组织；2019年（WHO/HIS/HWF/GENDER/WP1/2019.1）。确定性：CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO
^viWorld Health Organization's Global Health Workforce Statistics, OECD, supplemented by country data