Philips Foundation is highlighting progress made in improving access to maternal healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa, including obstetric ultrasound services.
This includes improving access to maternal care for 15 million people in 2022 alone. The foundation is planning to ramp up its partnerships with social entrepreneurs in the Nairobi, Kenya, region. The increased focus on collaboration with social entrepreneurs comes after initial successes since the foundation launched the scheme in 2021, the foundation said.
The foundation has partnered with Aga Khan University to train midwives in the use of obstetric ultrasound and equip health centers with ultrasound devices. In Uganda, the foundation supported Imaging the World Africa in training over 250 healthcare professionals.
Other programs the foundation has supported include developing easy-to-understand referral cards for high-risk pregnancies and partnering with UNICEF to introduce a digital tool to supervise and upkeep medical equipment in 100 healthcare facilities.
![A normal mammogram confirmed by three-year radiologic follow-up illustrates reader-marked regions of interest (ROIs) during (A) unaided (round 1) and (B) artificial intelligence (AI)–assisted (round 2) reading. Each colored dot represents an ROI for recall by a human reader. Readers could mark more than one ROI per case, represented by multiple dots of the same color. During AI-assisted reading, the AI system displayed three visible prompts: two with suspicion of malignancy scores of 35% (left mediolateral oblique [L MLO] and craniocaudal [L CC]) and one with a suspicion of malignancy score of 10% (right craniocaudal [R CC]), shown as polygonal overlays. Without AI, six of 10 readers (60%) marked a false-positive ROI. With AI assistance, this fell to two of 10 (20%). R MLO = right mediolateral oblique.](https://img.auntminnie.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/07/2026-07-14-radiology-mammogram-ai-auto-bias.H0bYO8QlWs.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&dpr=2&fit=crop&h=167&q=70&w=250)
