Continuous Training and Certification in Neonatal Resuscitation in Remote Areas Through A Multi-Platform ICT Intervention: A Randomized Cluster Trial

Neonatal mortality rate has decreased dramatically in Peru in the last two decades. However, unacceptable gaps between the poorest and richest quintiles remain (14.7 vs. 7.6 deaths per 1,000 live births). Neonatal asphyxia accounts for more than 20% of these deaths. One critical reason is that, although the coverage of institutional deliveries has also increased, the quality of management of newborns with asphyxia is far from optimal, due to the lack of adequately trained health personnel. Scarcity of continuously available training courses accessible to health workers, particularly to those from remote rural areas, is a key bottleneck. We propose an ICT multi-platform resource to optimize the training and certification process of health professionals in the resuscitation of newborns in remote areas, as a way to increase the coverage of adequate management of neonatal asphyxia by adequately trained health personnel and to accelerate the reduction of neonatal mortality gaps between rich and poor quintiles, and between urban and rural areas. Our proposed intervention will take advantage of an ICT multi-platform resource previously designed by our group that is continuously available to health personnel and allows them to take online and offline initial and refresh training, rendering them eligible for a swift certification process that avoids unnecessary absences from their health facilities