Caremother- BabyBeat – a wireless, portable, smartphone-based clinical-grade smart device, received an honorary mention at ZS’s inaugural healthcare innovation program, ZS PRIZE, in their awards ceremony on July 2, 2021. The solution is designed as a fetal monitoring device for pregnant women which provides AI-powered auto-interpretation features to assist doctors and frontline workers in making accurate diagnosis and real-time remote monitoring for an expert review.
More than 20 million pregnancies occurring in India are devoid of quality fetal monitoring. In the government health sector, fetal monitoring is not a part of the primary service range as it requires infrastructure investment and lacks an adequate number of specialists who can interpret the results. Hence, a large proportion of women do not get access to fetal monitoring which is an important part of quality antenatal care, resulting in more than 500,000 neonatal deaths every year. In cities, expectant mothers need to make frequent clinic visits for NST (Nonstress Test) which becomes inconvenient, costly and increases the risk of exposure during the pandemic. Therefore, to ensure quality monitoring access and to enable frontline workers with semi-skills to perform the required fetal health assessment test, Caremother has come up with- ‘BabyBeat’.
Speaking about the solution, Shantanu Pathak, Co-founder of BabyBeat, mentioned that, “The solutions which are currently available for evaluation of fetal wellness are expensive, require high-maintenance (space, power supply, etc.), not portable, difficult to use by nurses, and need a gynecologist’s presence for interpretation. One such example is-Cardiotocography (CTG) machines. Mainly they are placed in busy tertiary care facilities and accessing these facilities during the pandemic is a challenge in itself. Whereas, Baby Beat overcomes these challenges and ensures medical- grade fetal monitoring at the last mile with non-stress test and fetal heart rate monitoring, anytime and anywhere that too at 30% lesser price.”
This cloud-based solution is ideal for remote areas as it is economical and easy to use. Furthermore, it is easy to share patient reports in PDF format via email/Whatsapp or it can even be printed using any basic printer. It is an affordable product that significantly reduces the cost per test. This directly benefits the low-income group segment who cannot afford such facilities. For expecting mothers living in cities, BabyBeat provides the ease of taking tests from home and that too by themselves, while reducing clinic visits and associated costs.
Commenting on ZS PRIZE, Ravi Venkatesan, Jury Chairman of ZS PRIZE and former Chairman, Microsoft, said, “Prizes like ZS PRIZE are incredibly important because they recognize good ideas and help teams behind them to take their ideas to impact. And that, in turn, inspires many others to start innovating. The second wave of COVID-19 highlighted the urgent need for a tremendous amount of innovation to make healthcare in India preventive, affordable, and accessible.”
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