What is the name of your organization?
Vasowatch Inc
What is the name of your solution?
Vibrant algorithm
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Closing the gap in postpartum hemorrhage risk prediction
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Philadelphia, PA, USA
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
United States
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Globally, over fourteen million women annually experience postpartum hemorrhage, threatening their lives and their reproductive health. Postpartum hemorrhage persists as the leading cause of maternal deaths globally. In the US, maternal deaths and health inequities are growing. Black women die at 3x the rate of white mothers. Hemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal deaths and complications in Labor and Delivery. Studies show up to 90% of these deaths could have been prevented. Forty percent of the women who go on to hemorrhage are assessed as “low risk” by hospital risk assessment surveys, the current standard of care. A woman’s postpartum hemorrhage risk status can change during Labor and Delivery. Current detection methods underestimate blood loss by up to 50% and are hampered by recent staffing shortages, sicker mothers, and growing racial inequities in obstetrics care. Accurate hemorrhage risk prediction focuses resources on the most needy patients, expediting treatment. Time to treatment matters.
What is your solution?
Vasowatch has developed a new intrapartum physiological measurement that can alert the clinical care team to heightened maternal risk ahead of delivery, averting up to 80% of hemorrhages that are currently missed by existing standard-of-care risk prediction tools. Our patent-pending VIBRANT algorithm tests for myometrial fatigue, the weakening of the uterine muscle, during active labor, using streaming maternal heart rate. Myometrial fatigue is the leading cause of hemorrhage, cannot be measured directly and occurs during the course of labor and delivery. Our solution includes a heart rate wearable (ECG or PPG), proprietary patent-pending algorithm, and a mechanism to communicate maternal hemorrhage risk to clinicians ahead of delivery. A non-invasive wearable is put on the mother at hospital admission, streaming her maternal heart rate to the algorithm for continuous analysis. Bedside and nurses’ station dashboards ensure that the clinical care team is alerted to a change in her hemorrhage risk status in real time, ahead of delivery. Two to eight hours of advanced notice allows time for planning and preparation including blood typing, resource planning, and medication management, enabling timely and appropriate treatment and minimizing complications and deaths.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Vasowatch offers a predictive population health technology to clinical care delivery teams that can improve the ability of a birthing mother to experience a safe and complication-free delivery, regardless of race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status. Our novel technology can improve the quality and outcomes of 144M global births per year. Within the US, Vasowatch will target health systems in the top ten maternal mortality states with high birth volumes. Hemorrhage treatments are well-understood and highly effective when administered in a timely manner, averting complications like unnecessary hysterectomies and blood transfusions. Two hours advanced notice allows for planning and preparation, drawing up the proper uterotonic and supplies and ensuring that the blood cross and match are completed in case blood products are needed. Globally, in underserved areas serviced by community health workers, the algorithm can be used as an early warning device to move the birthing mother to a higher level of care if her PPH risk escalates. The algorithm can be used as a triage mechanism in busy high volume obstetrics wards where the clinicians struggle to know which patients need their attention. 4 out of every 5 hemorrhages can be averted through awareness of a mother’s PPH risk status.
