Prize Winners Announced of Maternal Health Diagnostics Challenge

Competition poster art featuring title and image of 3 pregnant women

Globally, more than 800 women and 7,000 newborns die every day from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth. Low-cost diagnostics that operate at point-of-care and can detect and differentiate among common conditions associated with pregnancy are needed to help reduce the high rates of maternal morbidity and mortality in low-resource settings.

The winning technologies share a total of $1 million in prizes for successful design and development of diagnostic tests and platform technologies that will reduce maternal morbidity and mortality.

The competition is managed by NIBIB, in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and with support from NICHD and NIH’s Office of Research on Women’s Health.

Five winners were chosen out of more than 40 entries. Winners include:

1st place: Dr. Bethany Hedt-Gauthier of Harvard

mHealth tools for community health worker-led home-based diagnosis of surgical site infections and anemia post-cesarian delivery

2nd place: University of California, Irvine

A low-cost, portable maternal obstetrics sock to monitor pregnant women for preeclampsia, anemia and hemorrhage

Tied for 3rd place: Softsonics, LLC, San Diego

A wearable ultrasound sensor to monitor pregnancy complications

Raydiant Oximetry, Inc. San Francisco

A non-invasive platform technology to diagnose maternal hemorrhage and fetal distress during pregnancy

For more information about the competition and winners, see: http://ow.ly/Tyny50K1uJh.