The US health tech company Sibel Health has been awarded a US$17.5m grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to advance its maternal monitoring technology for low-and-middle income countries.
The grant is hoped to advance the use of the company’s wireless monitoring solution for labour triage and continuous maternal health monitoring in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs) to reduce obstetrical morbidity and mortality.
The technology, known as ANNE® One, is an FDA-cleared platform capable of monitoring all vital signs in home and hospital settings for patients 12 years and older and is powered by AI-enabled wearable sensors.
Dr Steve Xu, co-founder and CEO of Sibel Health, said: “Sibel Health was spun out of Northwestern University and founded from an initial grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation given our commitment to maternal neonatal health. We’re proud to come full circle to take that initial investment and expand our potential for impact.
“Losing a single mother while giving birth is one too many. Vital signs are vital—and every pregnant person deserves to have their vitals checked.”
He added: “We’re looking forward to adding AI-driven clinical decision support and point of care ultrasound to this platform to go well beyond monitoring in the near future .”
Since 2016, progress in reducing global obstetrical mortality has stalled. Currently, the goal of meeting the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals of reducing maternal mortality rate to fewer than 70 out of 100,000 births is at risk.
Globally, 800 women die every day in pregnancy or childbirth with the majority of these deaths being completely preventable with early detection by vital signs monitoring.
In the US, maternal mortality has increased in the last 10 years, with black women having three times the risk of death compared to white women.
Sibel Health aims to improve maternal health monitoring globally. The company has partnered with the University of Edinburgh and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery to develop and deploy advanced maternal monitoring in three initial target geographies, India, Pakistan and Nigeria.
Professor Ewen Harrison, professor of surgery and data science at the University of Edinburgh and co-lead of the NIHR Global Surgery Unit, said: “As experts in implementing complex interventions and conducting large-scale clinical trials, we look forward to working with Sibel Health in this critical effort.”
Dr Rosie Townsend, senior clinical research fellow at the University of Edinburgh and consultant obstetrician at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, added: “The need for vital signs monitoring is clear in maternal health for low resource settings.
“This is an opportunity to deliver a potentially life-saving solution.”
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