US health network Axia Women’s Health is using an FDA-cleared, prescription-initiated, remote pregnancy monitoring platform from Israeli company Nuvo.

Axia is a women’s health network of more than 400 providers and 150 women’s health centres across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. It is dedicated to advancing maternal and foetal health through meaningful innovation that expands care delivery with technology and tools.

Responsible for approximately 30,000 births annually, Axia will be the first healthcare provider in the USA to adopt Nuvo’s Invu remote pregnancy monitoring platform, which is capable of producing remote foetal heart rate tracings comparable to in-office cardiotocography (CTG). Upon additional FDA clearances, Nuvo plans to expand the Invu platform to include more remote pregnancy monitoring services, such as non-stress tests.

Axia providers will be able to prescribe Invu to expectant mothers, who will wear the sensor band during virtual visits with their physicians. During these visits, a live reading allows the mother to access simplified data and insights via the paired app, while the provider receives foetal and maternal heart rate tracings comparable to the foetal viability checks that normally occur in prenatal visits.

Going forward, Axia will be able to shift safely a portion of scheduled appointments to virtual visits to help accommodate the daily lives of busy expectant mothers under its care. In addition, providers will be able to perform remote foetal wellness checks, addressing a need to reduce potential exposure to Covid-19.

“This moment is the culmination of more than six years of creating, building and validating a better way to deliver care to expectant mothers,” said Oren Oz, founder and CEO of Nuvo Group. “With our first enterprise contract, we mark Invu’s transformation into a marketplace reality. We’re honoured and excited that our first US partner for commercial adoption is Axia Women’s Health, a renowned innovator with whom we share a vision to advance maternal and foetal health through state-of-the-art technology and tools that empower providers and expectant mothers while expanding care delivery. We are thrilled to be able to harness the combined power of our proprietary sensor band and AI platform to transform care delivery for Axia Women’s Health patients.”

Charlie Choi, CEO of Axia Women’s Health, added: “At Axia Women’s Health, our vision is to lead the way in improving women’s health. Axia and Nuvo have closely-aligned missions, and we are both committed to more progressive care for women. This commercial agreement reflects Axia’s dedication to better serving our patients and advancing payer partnerships through value-based care supported by meaningful technology innovation and better care analytics to improve patients’ experience and outcomes.”

The Invu platform combines proprietary hardware for data collection, cloud-based software for computational power and AI tools to optimise the pregnancy care experience. It has received 510(k) clearance from the US FDA for maternal and foetal heart rate monitoring. It is not yet cleared for remote monitoring of uterine activity in the USA and is limited to investigational use for this purpose.

“Invu has unique capabilities beyond those of any remote care products we’ve assessed and extends beyond televisits to deliver remote, medical-grade foetal wellness checks that maintain the connection between providers and patients,” said Elizabeth Cherot, chief medical officer of Axia Women’s Health. “This partnership will enable us to provide maternal and foetal care that is safer, more convenient and of higher quality for our patients.”