Stakeholder meeting demonstrates case for scaling IMPALA across Malawi

Malawian hospitals that adopt the IMPALA system to monitor the vital signs of critically ill children save lives, cut costs, and reduce staff stress levels.

At a daylong stakeholder meeting that the IMPALA research team (from the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, GOAL3, and AIGHD) organized in April 2025 at the Bingu International Convention Centre in Lilongwe, attendees learned that the system:

• Reduced deaths by a third, even when hospitals have more patients.,

• Costs 16% less than usual healthcare,

• Scores highly with nurses and doctors who found the monitor very useful and satisfactory (scoring 9.2 and 8.5 out of 10), with an increase to 9.6 and 9.7 when properly trained by AMREF and GOAL3,

• Nearly halved the time nurses spend on collecting vital signs,

• Empowers guardians and nurses when caring for the critically ill children.

Nurses using the monitor at work in hospitals in Kapiri, Zomba, and Mangochi shared their experiences with representatives from the Malawian ministry of health, key non-profit organizations, IMPALA consortium members, and other clinical staff from hospitals using the system.

“Previously, when we talked of vital signs, it was simply just a check of temperature,” explained Gift Mhango, a paediatric nurse at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Community Hospital in Kapiri. “There was increased workload for nurses and clinicians, because you had to go around all the time being called to see these children.”

“But with the tablet present, you can be taking care of another child at the same time and have an eye looking at the tablet. If something is going wrong with a child, you can quickly go and respond.”

The meeting concluded with a discussion on how the IMPALA monitoring system could be scaled nationwide – with the ministry expressing its support for this plan.

IMPALA currently has 167 monitors in use in 12 hospitals in 3 countries with 200 more monitors funded to expand it to 15 hospitals.

Dr. Jessica Chikwana, a paediatrician at Zomba Central Hospital in Malawi, describes the difference the IMPALA system that monitors sick childrens’ vital signs makes.

A nurse from Zomba Central Hospital describes how the IMPALA monitoring system reduces the stress levels of healthcare staff.