Expectant mums and unborn baby can soon be monitored from home by their doctor.
- Monash University researchers have partnered with industry to trial a unique wearable device that monitors the health of mum and fetus during pregnancy.
- The device is a world-first in providing outpatient antenatal monitoring and is being trialled in Melbourne and collaborating hospitals around the world.
- Researchers expect the device to be made commercially available next year.
- Femom is prescribed by the patient’s obstetrician and is used by the expectant mother herself in her home. It’s easy to place on the stomach and automatically connects to the phone via an app.
- It tracks vital information such as the heart rate of the mother and her fetus, and contractions and provides real-time patient reports to the treating obstetrician and important information to the patient around her own health and care.
Monash University researchers in Melbourne, in partnership with Biorithm, a Singapore-based start-up, are bringing obstetric healthcare into the 21st century, trialling a new wearable device that remotely monitors a mother and unborn baby’s heart rate, and contractions.
The remote monitoring device, Femom, is placed on the stomach by expectant mums in the comfort of their own home, tracking vital information and reporting to the treating doctor via a phone app.
The device could be made commercially available next year. Researchers believe it has the potential to revolutionise obstetric care as fetal monitoring through CTG hasn’t evolved since its invention in the 1960’s.
A doctor prescribes the device and kit along with regular ‘virtual appointments’ through self-monitoring. Depending on the patient’s needs, the kit comes complete with connecting devices such as a blood pressure monitor, glucometer and a digital weight scale, providing a detailed profile of the patient and unborn baby’s health.
With 50 million pregnancies (30 per cent worldwide) considered high-risk, co-developer
