IITians Develop an App That Detects High-Risk Pregnancies

Students of Indian Institute of Technology, Powai have come up with an app that is saving lives in rural areas. Called ‘Care Mother’ - the app, along with a pregnancy kit is able to detect high-risk pregnancies. A trial run in 60 villages of the Aurangabad district helped them develop this technology.

‘Care Mother’ has been developed by Shantanu Pathak and Aditya Kulkarni, an IIT Madras alumni. The software uses World Health Organisation guidelines which can classify normal and high-risk pregnancies. Around 5,000 women have been registered on the app. The app will be used in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations at their health camps and also in the slums of Govandi and Kurla in Mumbai.

Health workers are a key part of this. Through them, pregnant women are linked to doctors and other pre-natal care that they need.

“The health worker can create an account for each pregnant woman on the mobile application. Their basic information is then fed in, including blood pressure, diabetes status, weight, age, foetal heart rate, protein and sugar levels. The application identifies high-risk women by calculating a combination of parameters,” said the co-founder of the application, Shantanu Pathak.

Pregnancies in rural areas can be difficult because of the lack of resources and information. Oftentimes, the women themselves don’t know what are the signs that can lead to a high-risk pregnancy. By registering on the app, they have the resources to help them through their pregnancy. The app also shows a graph of the foetal heart rate. There is a device attached to the women that calculates this.

It is not the app alone that can determine all of this, there are devices and pregnancy kits provided along with it, and it is not a replacement for sonography.

The kit provided contains eight medical tests at the women's doorstep by FDA/CE approved devices. The app also has other features such as scheduling appointments with gynaecologists, scheduling lab tests, baby kick count and early risk identification.

Once put into action, this app can save lives of women and give them information so that they are empowered. India has the highest number of maternal deaths in the world, and this app can be a beacon of light in reducing the number of deaths.

The app has already been bought by the government of Nagaland, as well as certain NGOs from the states of Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

Pic credits: caremother.in

Also read: How Many Women Know Their Contraceptives Well? Do You?