Smart Discharges to Improve Post-discharge Health Outcomes in Children

In Uganda, about 5% of children discharged after hospitalization for a serious infection will die in the weeks after returning home. Doctors and parents are often unaware of this period of vulnerability and are poorly equipped to identify or handle this critical situation. This project builds on past work to develop and evaluate models and technology to predict, before discharge, an individual child's risk of recurrent illness, as well as to provide additional post-discharge support to at-risk children. This study seeks to evaluate the effect of a novel "Smart Discharges" approach on childhood mortality and health seeking behaviour.

Inclusion Criteria:Children under five years of ageAdmission with a proven or suspected infectionProvide written informed consentExclusion Criteria:Refusal to participatePrevious enrolment in the studyOutside of hospital catchmentLanguage barrierDirect admission following birth without having been discharged