Understanding Neonatal Jaundice in Rwanda
Understanding Neonatal Jaundice in Rwanda
This study exploits the distribution of low-cost high-quality phototherapy devices (Brilliance by D-Rev) to public hospitals in Rwanda to assess whether the provision of improved technology improves health care for infant jaundice. Specifically, the investigators are interested in measuring whether the provision of an additional high-quality phototherapy device, a known effective treatment for jaundice, successfully translates into improved care of neonatal jaundice in Rwanda where the burden of jaundice is particularly high.
The Ministry of Health (MIH) in Rwanda has planned to provide Brilliance devices (phototherapy) to 46 public hospitals in Rwanda. The investigators have worked with MIH to have the delivery of these machines be staggered over three phases through random selection. The methodology relies on the staggered distribution of Brilliance devices and survey data collected prior and during delivery dates to evaluate the provision of low-cost high quality phototherapy machines, following the basic design of a staggered randomized controlled trial. Specifically, the investigators will survey all hospitals prior to the receipt of any Brilliance devices to provide a baseline description of the care received in these facilities. These surveys will collect information on the facility itself, including average infant jaundice caseloads and descriptions of recent cases. The investigators will then randomly select 15 hospitals to receive the Brilliance units. Three months after installation of Brilliance has occurred at these facilities (Group 1), another randomly selected subset of 16 facilities (Group 2) will receive their Brilliance machines. Three months after these installations have been completed, the remaining facilities (Group 3) will receive their Brilliance machines. During this period, there will be ongoing data collection from the hospitals, creating a panel dataset on the jaundice-related caseloads at these facilities. The data collected will be akin to collecting hospital records of patients diagnosed with jaundice, but no identifiable patient information will be collected.
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