A wearable fetal monitor with smartphone-based technology helps physicians screen for symptoms that may lead to complications during pregnancy.

The PregSense monitor is a multimodal/multi-sensor pregnancy belt for safely capturing health and wellness data, with a cloud-based host that provides sophisticated signal processing and data management. The elastic, harness-like device has passive acoustic and electrocardiogram (ECG) sensors woven into the fabric that extract fetal heart rate (FHR), maternal heart rate (MHR), kicks, and sleep state. The signals are synthesized and analyzed using sophisticated proprietary algorithms, providing data around the clock on the status of the fetus and the mother's health in the later stages of pregnancy.

The device further sends the information via a bluetooth-enabled smartphone paired with the monitor to a secure, cloud-based database accessible only to expectant mothers and their physicians. Consumers will be able to access the data on their smartphone or through a dedicated website, where they can record and share the baby's heartbeat with friends and family.

According to the developer, Nuvo Group (Tel Aviv, Israel), The PregSense offers an advantage over traditional heavy electric fetal monitors (EFMs), or cardiotocography (CTG) devices to track the fetal heartbeat. A consumer version of the PregSense monitor, the Ritmo Beats, will provide mothers with real-time data on their unborn child's cardiac activity. A smartphone app is under development that will provide a visual representation of the data gathered by the wearable monitor.

“It will have 13 sensors wrapping around the belly, including acoustic and ECG sensors to monitor the heartbeat, with motion sensors to track kicks, contractions and other movements. We record everything possible from the surface of the abdomen about the pregnancy,” said Oren Oz, CEO of Nuvo Group. “The immediate impact, the immediate benefit to doctors is that we are replacing the bulky CTG machines which are heavy and connected to the wall with the light weight mobility and continuous monitoring.”

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Nuvo Group