HRSA Grant Program Promotes Remote Monitoring for Pregnant Women

Feb. 25, 2019

Ten innovations given support to scale up prototypes

The Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has selected 10 winners in Phase 1 of its Remote Pregnancy Monitoring Challenge. The winning innovations are technology-based solutions that help providers remotely monitor the health of pregnant women, and empower women to make informed decisions about their own care.

Each Phase 1 winner was awarded a share of $100,000 and will move on to Phase 2 to develop their prototype and begin small-scale testing through August 2019. Mentors will be available to provide feedback on testing methodologies and to provide more information about the evidence base.

In Phase 3, winners of Phase 2 will test their proposed interventions on a larger scale. Applicants are encouraged to work closely with a community or city to facilitate scaling the intervention in order to reach more families.

Challenge entrants included multidisciplinary teams of academics, health professionals, tech companies, IT designers, as well as individuals, community groups and startups.

The 10 winners in Phase 1 are:

• Rural Mamas Connect

• Augusta University: The Vida App

• Babyscripts

• Bloomlife Inc.

• College of Community Health Sciences, The University of Alabama: Telemedicine-toward Empowering Rural Moms (TERM) Program

• Zohreh Daly: Maternal Monitoring App-MaMA

• Minash LLC: Moms Care Circle

• Nutrimedy: NuExpecting

• PreTeL Inc.: Disposable Electronic Tattoo Sensors

• Sibel Inc.: Breakthrough Wearable Sensor Systems for Pregnancy

One of the winners,   Babyscripts, put out a press release about its solution, saying it has spent the last four years building a clinically validated, virtual care platform to allow OBGYNs to deliver a new model of prenatal care. Using internet-connected devices for remote monitoring, Babyscripts offers risk-specific experiences to allow providers to manage up to 90 percent of pregnancies virtually, allowing doctors to detect risk more quickly and automate elements of care, the company said.   In concert with the HRSA grant, Babyscripts plans to expand its focus from prenatal care to transforming the postpartum transition through the use of remote monitoring and provider-connected technology experiences.