Clearing a PATH to Better Health in Developing Countries (1/2)

This year is the thirtieth anniversary of the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, or PATH. PATH is a nonprofit organization based in Seattle, Washington.

It was created to deal with technology needs for world health, especially reproductive health. Since then, it has expanded into other areas including vaccine research and prevention of AIDS and malaria" class="hjdict" word="malaria" target=_blank>malaria. It has programs in 65 countries. PATH works with local partners to design and test new technologies. It also works with companies to manufacture and sell them.

One of its products is called the BIRTHweigh scale. This is used to identify babies who have a dangerously low birthweight, less than two and one-half kilograms.

The scale was designed for health workers with low reading skills. At first it used colors to show different weight levels. But tests in Indonesia found that it also had to be readable in low-light situations, like at night in a house without electric power. The handheld scale was redesigned so a person could feel a button sink into the handle if a baby is a healthy weight.