NEC spoke at the GHIT R&D Forum 2024 (5 Dec.2024) on the role new technologies play in improving global health.

The event was organized by the Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund, a public-private partnership that supports the R&D of drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and other diseases prevalent mainly in developing countries. It brought together more than 120 global stakeholders, including private companies, academia, research institutions, and NGO/NPOs.

Representing NEC, Mariko Kitahama spoke at “Session 4: Technologies on the Ground - Adapting new technologies in the context of Low-and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs)”. 

Kitahama started with a brief introduction of the company emphasizing NEC's purpose: To create the social values of safety, security, fairness, and efficiency to promote a more sustainable world where everyone has the chance to reach their full potential.

She then introduced NEC's four steps to realize such a society. 
The first step is personal identification by providing a reliable and inclusive ID to everyone so that they can be recognized by the government and receive essential social services.

The second step is the provision of humanitarian aid by visualizing the support supply chain, so that appropriate support can be delivered in a timely and efficient manner to those who need it, especially during times of emergency.

The third step is capacity building for everyone to become economically and socially independent.

Through these steps, we reach the final fourth step, which is to co-create a sustainable society. This process involves a variety of stakeholders, including international, national, and local communities.

To provide an example, Kitahama shared a specific use case where NEC worked together with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. 

In certain developing countries, when administering vaccines to children, it used to take medical professionals 20 minutes to search through thick books for the mother's and child's records to verify their identities. The introduction of infant fingerprint identification was developed and introduced, reducing the identification process to just 90 seconds. This highlights the importance of Personal identification (Step 1). 

The next use case Kitahama introduced was provision for humanitarian aid (Step 2) through the aid supply chain is the management of benefits in a community program promoted with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This program was able to ensure that food and aid coupons would only be used for their intended purposes, such as restricting the use of medical coupons to being used to buy medical supplies only), and has also enabled the community to understand what the coupons were used for and to utilize them correctly.

The use case introduced that covers Step 3, local capacity building, is a mobile app for health center staff in Ghana. Kitahama shared that NEC developed a mobile app that incorporated visualized guidelines to ensure that all mothers and children received the same level of health screening and nutritional guidance. As a result, the accuracy of hearings has improved and the number of nutritional guidelines delivered to mothers and children has increased. The visualization also made it easier for mothers to remember the nutritional guidance they received from health center staff.

Finally, Kitahama introduced a vaccine-related case study. NEC participated in the 100-day challenge program launched by CEPI to design a prototype of a vaccine for Homo sapiens against the beta coronavirus. The goal was to be able to produce a vaccine against future potential disease outbreaks.

After her presentation, a forum moderator asked Kitahama what the most critical challenges facing low- and middle-income countries in Africa are, and what is needed to adapt technology to the healthcare sector.

Kitahama responded:
“With the support of our partners, we try to understand the local challenges before implementing a project. First, we conduct in-depth interviews and discussions with stakeholders. We also conduct journey mapping to understand the operations on the ground. For example, in the case of a vaccination project, we have observed cases where the same child was brought in for vaccination by different adults. The adults were doing so in order to claim small incentives that were given out when children received vaccinations. Of course, it is harmful to give more of the same vaccine than necessary. Thus, through our partners and care clinics, we are learning from the caregiver field about the various challenges they face, and how these challenges can be solved with technology.”

When Kitahama mentioned that there are cases where the same child is vaccinated multiple times for the sake of a small incentive, there was a stir among the audience. This was a shocking fact for many of the presentation attendees who are engaged in vaccine development and dissemination.

It reinforced the necessity for technologies like infant fingerprint authentication, which ensures reliable personal identification.

After her presentation, many attendees visited the NEC booth to exchange opinions with Kitahama. Despite coming from diverse backgrounds, from pharmaceutical reps to researchers, common ground was found with NEC in tackling shared issues.

NEC will continue to co-create with various international organizations and other stakeholders, utilizing digital technology so as to realize a sustainable society where no one is left behind.