Maternal Newborn Health Innovations
MNHI is a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) formed to generate social and public good by addressing maternal and newborn health issues.
About The MNHI Team
MNHI’s leadership includes:
- Gary Cohen, CEO and Board Director, retired Executive Vice President of Global Health at BD (Becton, Dickinson and Co.) and former UN Commissioner on Life Saving Commodities for Women and Children
- Rochelle Fuhrmann, CFO, former Vice President Audit and Enterprise Risk Management at BD
- Vince Forlenza, Board Director, retired CEO and Chairman of BD
- Dr. Mario Merialdi, Chief Medical Officer, an obstetrician gynecologist previously with the World Health Organization and involved in clinical development of OdonAssist™ since 2006
- Mark Kramer, Board Director, former faculty member at Harvard Business School and co-author of numerous publications on shared value creation
- Dr. Mireille Kanda, Board Director, pediatrician, former Deputy Director, National Institutes of Health, National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities
- Dr. Curt LaBelle, Board Director, Managing Partner, AXA-IM Global Health Fund
We innovate to help caregivers throughout the world reduce avoidable pain, harm and mortality to mothers and newborns during childbirth.
We aspire to reach the day when all births are safe, delivery is gentle, newborns are healthy, millions of lives are saved and the miracle of new life is enhanced for everyone.
We work for the common good. Our motivation is to save lives. We are committed to health equity. We partner with integrity.
Find us on LinkedIn for our latest updates and open positions to join the MNHI team.
Join UsThe Odón Story
At 4:00 am Jorge Odón woke from a dream. He had a life-saving idea.
The day before, Odón saw a demonstration of how a lost cork could be removed from a wine bottle. In the middle of the night he had a realization: the same technique could be used to save a baby stuck in the birth canal.
The year was 2006 and Odón, a car mechanic, was able to construct a prototype using his daughter’s doll, a jar, and a piece of cloth. After refining the idea with various obstetricians, he met Dr Mario Merialdi from the World Health Organization who, at a medical conference in Argentina, granted Odón a 10 minute meeting. The meeting lasted two hours, as they quickly envisaged its potential global impact.
Since that fateful day the product has been refined and tested to become the innovation known as the OdonAssist™ inflatable device for assisted vaginal birth.
MNHI is proud to help Jorge Odón's dream come true, with the hope that by doing so we can help make the dreams of parents everywhere come true, too.
