Signal functions are a representative shortlist of key interventions and activities that address major causes of morbidity or mortality and that are indicative of a certain type and level of care. For instance, signal functions indicative of "basic emergency obstetric care (EmOC)" could be provided by midwives at the level of a health centre, while "comprehensive EmOC" signal functions indicate a higher level of care, usually at a hospital.
Signal functions for EmOC already exist and are widely used, however no signal functions for emergency newborn care have been defined (except resuscitation). Also no signal functions for routine care at health facilities for either mother or newborn (i.e.care for all women and babies, as opposed to emergency care for complications) have been defined.
We would like to ask your expert opinion and complete a short survey (5 minutes) on signal functions for obstetric and newborn care at health facilities in low-income countries.
We have done a systematic review on newborn signal functions and are planning to publish an article suggesting signal functions for newborn care and routine care at health facilities and are now conducting a Delphi-like opinion poll on which functions seem most appropriate.
Criteria for the signal functions are that they should be highly effective interventions / activities addressing the major causes of mortality, as well as being feasible in low-income settings and easy to interpret and measure.
If you only feel comfortable on either newborn or obstetric functions, just leave the other questions blank. We so far had most difficulty with the signal functions for comprehensive emergency newborn care, i.e. which life-saving interventions for newborns should be chosen as indicative of a well-functioning hospital in a low-income setting. It would be particularly helpful if you could add a comment explaining your choice in that section.
We welcome your input until next Friday, March 30th.
Here is the link to the survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/P5KN69N