Rockville, MD, April 15, 2026 – The Inteleos Foundation today announced five recipients of its 2026 MedMissions Award, supporting maternal health ultrasound access in Malawi, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Uganda, and Côte d’Ivoire. The annual award advances locally led nonprofit initiatives that expand point-of-care ultrasound training, strengthen referral pathways, and improve care for high-risk pregnancies in resource-limited settings.  

In its eighth year of operation, the MedMissions Award confronts one of global health’s most urgent crises — 5 billion people without access to medical imaging — building the evidence base and partnerships needed to make ultrasound accessible to all.   

2026 MedMissions Award Recipients  

This year, the Foundation has selected the following nonprofit organizations to drive locally-led maternal health interventions in five nations:  

• GAIA Global Health: Expanding access to quality obstetric ultrasound services to support safer pregnancies and deliveries in rural communities in Malawi.  

• Seed Global Health: Expanding point-of-care ultrasound training and services to strengthen maternal and newborn care in health facilities across Sierra Leone.  

• Kenyatta University: Deploying ultrasound to improve early detection and referral for high-risk pregnancies in remote informal settlements of Nairobi County, Kenya.  

• Babies and Mothers Alive Foundation: Improving the quality of obstetric care by integrating point-of-care ultrasound into routine antenatal practice in health facilities in Uganda’s Greater Masaka region.  

• Muso: Enhancing ultrasound capacity for frontline providers to improve obstetric and perinatal outcomes in Côte d’Ivoire.  

The MedMissions Award establishes a consortium of health-focused organizations and local Ministries of Health to advance point-of-care ultrasound training and referral pathways for frontline health workers in remote communities across Sub-Saharan Africa.  

Selected awardees will use an outcomes-based approach to evaluate patient health outcomes, ultrasound utilization, and community adoption. These partnerships are designed to help translate field-level evidence into national policy, long-term workforce capacity, and more sustainable health system integration. For the Inteleos Foundation, these interventions will establish critical infrastructure and replicable education models that will drive universal access to medical imaging for health providers and their patients.  

To learn more about MedMissions, visit: https://inteleosfoundation.org/medical-missions   

Inteleos Foundation  

The Inteleos Foundation is a global nonprofit organization that fosters community-led, outcomes-driven technology interventions that transform patient care in low-resourced communities. Our work is guided by three key priorities: enriching healthcare provider training and certification in medical imaging, catalyzing workforce development with ultrasound to advance economic opportunities in healthcare, and addressing gaps in diagnostic service delivery across health systems through network collaboration.  

GAIA Global Health:  GAIA believes that everyone deserves access to quality healthcare, no matter where they live or who they are. In partnership with government and local communities, we strengthen health systems by filling gaps in the healthcare grid now and increasing capacity for the long term. Our mobile health clinics increase access to high quality antenatal healthcare in rural Malawi to improve health outcomes for women and infants.    

Seed Global Health:  Seed Global Health strengthens health systems by investing in skilled health workers—doctors, nurses, and midwives—and the clinical and academic environments where they learn, teach, and deliver care. Partnering with governments and training institutions, Seed improves the quality of care in hospitals and clinics, helping health workers deliver lifesaving care when it matters most, while building the workforce countries need for the future. This integrated approach saves lives today while driving lasting system transformation.  

Kenyatta University:  Kenyatta University is a leading public university in Kenya, established in 1985 and located along Thika Road in Nairobi. The University is committed to excellence in teaching, research, innovation, and community service, with a strong focus on producing skilled, ethical, and globally competitive graduates. Kenyatta University hosts diverse academic programs across health sciences, education, engineering, environmental studies, business, and social sciences, and plays a critical role in advancing research, healthcare innovation, and sustainable development in Kenya and the region.  

Babies and Mothers Alive Foundation: Babies and Mothers Alive (BAMA) Foundation is a Ugandan-led NGO with a mission to create partnerships that transform the quality of reproductive, maternal, and newborn health in Uganda. Since 2004, BAMA has contributed to reducing preventable maternal and newborn deaths by strengthening health systems, building local capacity, and addressing social and structural barriers to maternal and newborn healthcare through a holistic approach targeting the three delays that drive most of these deaths: seeking care, reaching care, and receiving quality care.  

Muso:  Each year around the world, millions of people living in poverty die of curable diseases because they do not get care in time. Muso was founded by a group of Malian and Americans with a shared belief: that no one should die waiting for care. We build health systems that save lives by reaching patients quickly. The communities Muso serves have achieved the largest and fastest improvements in child survival on record in an active conflict zone. Today, Muso serves over 600,000 patients directly, and supports national health care reform across Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, and Zambia.