A student midwife from south west London has launched an app to improve the care provided to women and babies with black and brown skin in a bid to improve knowledge available to clinical teams when dealing with issues such as jaundice, cyanosis, sepsis, mastitis and others
Ruby Jackson, a 23-year-old student in Brighton, has developed Melanatal to improve awareness "understanding and knowledge of the clinical presentation of conditions on Black and Brown skin".
On the app's website, Melanatal says it aims to provide "an essential platform for the midwifery multidisciplinary team, medical students and birthing people to refer to and escalate and advocate any identified concerns." Adding that the app aims to increase early detection and minimise missed diagnosis opportunities.
Jackson told the BBC she "was inspired to create Melanatal due to a general lack of understanding about how some conditions present in people who are not white."
The student secured a place in the NHS clinical entrepreneur programme to complete a pilot of the app.
Jackson describes the app as a digital health education tool "to equip birthing people and clinical staff (eg, midwives, student midwives, maternity care assistants, nursery nurses, health visitors etc.) with better knowledge of the clinical presentation and the signs/symptoms of different maternal/neonatal conditions on Black and Brown skin".
There will be information on health issues such as jaundice, cyanosis, newborn rashes and marks, sepsis, mastitis, pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes.
