Monitoring the course of pregnancy with the help of sensors connected to a smartphone may turn out to be an excellent solution for women living far from medical centers – says New Scientist.
Since specialized equipment is usually only available in hospitals, pregnant women living far away are exposed to long journeys to get routine checkups.
The situation can be changed by a portable fetal monitoring package that uses the computing and communication capabilities of a smartphone. It was designed by a team of engineers, computer specialists and obstetricians from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sensors available on the market monitor the baby’s heartbeat and the mother’s uterine contractions. This information is transmitted via Bluetooth technology to a smartphone based on the Android operating system. The smartphone, in turn, transmits the processed data to the hospital – in the same way as is available.
As explained by Dimitrios Mastrogiannis, the project’s chief medical officer, data on the mother’s oxygen or glucose levels can be collected in a similar way (PAP).
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