SPAQ

SOIK Corporation

SPAQ

Smartphone-based Digital Solution with Ultrasound to Improve Maternal Healthcare Services in Small Health Centers in Africa

日本、沖縄県中頭郡読谷村

JPN

For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models

The challenge we address is the high maternal mortality rate in underserved rural communities, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Globally, an estimated 287,000 women die each year due to complications related to pregnancy and childbirth—equivalent to one death every two minutes (WHO). About 70% of these deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Among these countries, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) faces one of the most severe conditions, with a maternal mortality rate of 547 deaths per 100,000 live births as of 2020 (UNICEF), far above the SDG target of less than 70. The problem is especially critical in rural and conflict-affected areas of the DRC, where health services are limited or inaccessible. Internally displaced persons (IDP) camps and remote villages often lack medical infrastructure. Approximately 80% of maternal deaths occur outside health facilities, in communities with little or no access to care. Key contributing factors include a severe shortage of skilled health personnel, limited access to basic medical devices, and a lack of awareness among pregnant women about the importance of facility-based care.

SPAQ is an integrated digital maternal health package combining a smartphone app with portable digital medical devices, especially ultrasound. By following the app’s guided navigation, health workers—including community health workers—can register pregnant women, perform standardized antenatal care (ANC), and enter examination results as structured data. Care follows national guidelines, including suggestions for exams and prescriptions. SPAQ contributes to strengthening healthcare systems by enabling quality maternal care delivery in underserved settings. In workforce development, we train healthcare and community health workers to enhance their skills. SPAQ’s intuitive UI and AI help non-specialists, enabling expanded access to care in underserved communities. In supply chain management, SPAQ tracks the use and non-use of medicines and diagnostics. This allows BI-driven analysis to identify supply-demand gaps and stock imbalances. Authorities can then reallocate unused stock to under-supplied facilities. In resilience, SPAQ’s portable, offline-operable design makes it functional in low-resource settings such as refugee camps. It’s already deployed in UNFPA-led programs. These features make SPAQ a scalable, system-level solution to address critical maternal health gaps across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Our solution directly impacts pregnant women in rural sub-Saharan Africa who lack access to essential maternal care. We focus on three underserved groups: (1) those attending under-resourced facilities without diagnostic capacity, (2) those with poor access to healthcare, and (3) those unaware of their pregnancy or the need for antenatal care. For group (1), we introduce SPAQ to improve care quality in small healthcare facilities, addressing the lack of skilled personnel and providing a design functional in remote areas. Many rural clinics suffer from limited resources and absent diagnostic tools, leading to delayed identification of complications. For groups (2) and (3), we conduct outreach campaigns and awareness-raising activities, offering antenatal care directly in villages, reaching those excluded from the healthcare system. Our intervention improves clinical quality and patient experience. With digital tools like ultrasound and blood pressure devices, SPAQ enhances antenatal care quality. In antenatal consultations, 80 abnormalities—including ectopic pregnancies and twins—were detected, and 50 lives saved. Patient satisfaction is crucial. At SPAQ-equipped sites, 99% of women reported higher satisfaction, not only from improved safety but also from the emotional connection fostered by seeing their baby via ultrasound. As a result, antenatal care attendance increased by 74%.