AirStrip is getting into the labor and delivery business.
The mobile healthcare solutions vendor has acquired the assets of Sense4Baby, the developer of a wireless fetal/maternal monitoring system for high-risk pregnancies, and licensed the accompanying technology from the Gary and Mary West Health Institute. Company officials plan to offer the wares to healthcare providers and will pursue FDA clearance for home-based monitoring.
AirStrip built its foundation on remote cardiology monitoring, including an OB solution that's been used in hospitals for roughly a decade. This latest acquisition follows company CEO Alan Portela's quest to move patient monitoring services to where the patients are – at home, in the doctor's office, in an ambulance – while delivering real-time data to the clinician. The Sense4Baby technology uses non-invasive sensors to keep track of both fetal and maternal heart rate and contraction patterns.
The deal enables Airstrip to expand its ability to care pregnant patients outside the hospitals and across the obstetrics care continuum, as Portela explained in a prepared statement.
Michael Ross, MD, with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center added in the release that the system enables specialists to interpret tests via a portal, which is "ideal for healthcare in rural populations and for staying connected to vital data that can help ensure the safety of mother and baby.”
The San Diego-based West Health Institute helped research the Sense4Baby technology platform in 2010, officials said, partnering with the Carlos Slim Health Institute in 2011 to trial the new technology in Yucatan, Mexico. In 2012, the technology was transferred to a startup company in its West health Incubator, and Sense4Baby, Inc. was officially launched, with offices in La Jolla, Calif.
The technology received both 501(k) clearance from the FDA and a CE mark from the European Commission in 2013, enabling the company to commercialize Sense4Baby in clinical settings. The acquisition by San Antonio-based AirStrip enables the platform data to be mobilized on the AirStrip ONE mobile solution.
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