A programme that screens newborns for birth asphyxia has won the Health Workforce Innovation Prize, sponsored by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince's Court. The prize is part of this year’s annual MIT Solve 2020 Global Health Challenge, an initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that seeks to find solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Ubenwa Health, which developed a smartphone app that uses artificial intelligence to analyse a newborn's cries and screen for birth asphyxia, will receive funding from the court. Birth asphyxia, a condition where a newborn does not have enough oxygen, is responsible for the disability and death of about two million newborns worldwide each year and is one of the top three causes of newborn mortality. The prize funds projects that support the health workforce for newborns, pregnant women and new mothers in low-income countries, where newborn mortality rates are 10 times those of wealthy nations. Data shows that mortality rates from birth asphyxia are up to 12 times higher in low-income countries. The prize is supported by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and part of his commitment to global health and disease elimination, the state news agency Wam reported. "The UAE’s leadership firmly believes in the tremendous prospect of AI and its potential to transform health care," said Nassar Al Mubarak, senior director of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Court. "A company like Ubenwa is exciting in their use of this innovation to improve lives and give healthcare workers access to a critical newborn assessment tool." Charles Onu, founder of Ubenwa, said there was inadequate access to early screening for birth asphyxia. "We know that early diagnosis of birth asphyxia is key to survival," Mr Onu said. "However, this requires expensive equipment and specialised personnel unavailable in much of the world. "Through this financial support from the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Court, we will continue to improve and scale Ubenwa’s technology and ensure that every newborn is given the chance of a healthy life." Ubenwa is collecting clinically annotated crying data through studies in Nigeria and Canada to further develop and validate their machine-learning technology’s algorithms. The money awarded by the CPC will go towards expanding the sites of the clinical studies and begin hardware design and pilots of a crib microphone monitoring system. This is the second year the CPC has taken part in MIT Solve’s Global Health Challenge. Last year, it awarded the Innovating Together for Healthy Cities Prize to Faircap Clean Water. Faircap’s water-purification device helps people around the world who have little access to clean water.