Maternal mortality rates in Kenya are of great concern. As of 2015, there were 510 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, as estimated by the World Bank. The common causes of such maternal deaths are severe bleeding, infections, unsafe abortions, and high blood pressure. However, these causes could be mitigated through access to reliable maternal health information and resources that provide opportunities to reduce the risk factors. Kenya has a 93 percent rate of mobile-phone penetration that we can leverage to provide mothers with reliable maternal health care information from medical practitioners providers. This SuperUROP project aims to improve maternal health care outcomes in Kenya by building a telemedicine application that provides health care information to women in Kenya on their mobile phones.

*I am participating in SuperUROP because I would like to apply my computer science knowledge to build a telemedicine application to improve maternal healthcare outcomes in Kenya. I have taken relevant computer science classes and I have “on the ground” knowledge of Kenya. I hope to gain advanced research experience through SuperUROP.”