Three districts to pilot digital maternal health surveillance programme
“The program aims at piloting the integration of birth weight age, death, for intervention and valuation with the District Health Information Software (DHIS2) a tool for epidemic detection and response within the epidemic Life cycle framework," said Mugahi.
The Baby Matrix is a data collection tool used to record information when a baby is born, including the baby's weight, complications and age. It particularly captures information on babies weighing less than 2.5kg.
The Ministry of Health (MoH) is set to pilot a digital programme for monitoring maternal and newborn health, aimed at enabling lower-level health facilities to account for every child born alive or dead and improve maternal and newborn health surveillance.
Commissioner for reproductive, maternal and child health at the health ministry, Dr Richard Mugahi, said the digital tool, dubbed the “Digital Babies Matrix” on a Digital Dashboard (DDB), is intended to record timely information on maternal and newborn deaths, including the causes of death of mothers and babies from 22 weeks of pregnancy through the first seven days of life.
He made the revelation on September 25, 2026, at Fairway Hotel in Kampala, while briefing district data entry assistants, biostatisticians, district health officers and other officials.
What is a Baby Matrix?
The Baby Matrix is a data collection tool used to record information when a baby is born, including the baby's weight, complications and age. It particularly captures information on babies weighing less than 2.5kg.
Mugahi said the process will involve data assistants at Health Centres III and IV entering information on the causes of maternal and newborn deaths in communities and health facilities.
“The program aims at piloting the integration of birth weight age, death, for intervention and valuation with the District Health Information Software (DHIS2) a tool for epidemic detection and response within the epidemic Life cycle framework," said Mugahi.
He added, “ The MoH will train health workers to document details properly. This will help us to bridge the gaps where mothers who die in the community or babies die in facilities without a clear cause of death.” Mugahi explained.
"The purpose of this project is to better understand the causes of maternal and neonatal deaths. Knowing why these deaths occur is vital; it allows public health workers to trace the issues backwards and improve healthcare systems," Mugahi said.
"He explained that it will also help properly document the symptoms and clinical findings regarding the causes of maternal and neonatal deaths. Designing these responses ultimately strengthens public health systems.
How the DDB will work
The DDB is a visual display that brings important data and figures together on an easy-to-read screen. It acts like the dashboard in a car, giving users a quick overview of how lower-level health facilities are performing.
The system will also be able to trace the causes of symptoms of other diseases we shall be able to audit.
Mugahi said the initiative is supported by the Ministry of Health in partnership with CDC Atlanta in the USA, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Coalition for Health Promotion and Social Development (HEPS-Uganda), Health Initiatives for the Private Sector (HIPS) and UNICEF.
The ministry chose three districts, Kyegegwa, Kasese and Mukono, for pre-testing because they are located in the central part of the country and host refugees from neighbouring countries.
“These are areas which are normally populated with children requiring consistent Health care. In the case of Mukono, it is a unique district because it has both Urban and a higher population, being near the capital city which attracts people,” he noted.
“We feel this is cost-effective and will save the sector a lot of funds spent on manual recording and printing tools. With a click of a button, a supervisor at any level will be able to know the time of death of a child or mother, and it will give clues for investigation, leading to the cause," he explained.
He said the Ministry of Health will install solar power in areas without electricity to ensure data is transmitted to the district instantly
“Initially, the lower health facilities have been capturing data using manual registers; now we are transitioning to digital. The new system will empower the ministry to quickly evaluate maternal and perinatal deaths and respond with targeted health interventions.
The executive director of HEPS-Uganda, Kenneth Mwehonge, said all health partners, including private not-for-profit, predominantly faith-based organisations and NGOs, will be connected to the digital programme.
Mwehonge said that within four months after pre-testing the tool, health workers concerned are expected to have been trained to record all the required data at health facilities.
“The data collected at the facility level will track data including mothers who go for antenatal care services, normal deliveries, caesarean cases, underweight babies and babies’ deaths. Formerly, we used to get it at the end of the month," he asserted.
The Kyegegwa district health officer, Richard Mulumba, said, “They are targeting integrating matters of maternal health, perinatal death reviews, and response systems, with epidemic surveys. For example, we had an Ebola outbreak, and as part of the East African region, we want to mitigate its spread.
The HEPS-Uganda survey manager, Anthony Ssebagereka, said the project will operate in 11 health centres in Mukono, 13 health centres in Kasese and 15 health centres in Kyegegwa.
Ssebagereka added that the findings of the project will help health workers develop a shared vision of their work.