IIT Roorkee and AIIMS Delhi Collaborate to Create the SwasthGarbh Mobile App for Pregnant Women

By: WE Staff | Wednesday, 28 December 2022

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT Roorkee) have created the "SwasthGarbh" smartphone app to give pregnant women antenatal care and real-time medical support.

For women who live in remote places or who do not have easy access to doctors, this can be a crucial tool. This is the first pregnant app that offers immediate access to medical advice and is both credible and approved by doctors.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, and the App were jointly created. Due of the App's availability in the Google Play Store, both patients and doctors can utilise its advantages without paying a fee.

Pregnancy-related apps are utilised more than those in any other medical specialty, although they solely offer information about pregnancy and exclude doctor input. In order to meet this need, Prof. Deepak Sharma, Prof. Vatsla Dadhwal, Prof. Aparna Sharma, and Mr. Sahil Sharma from the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering at IIT Roorkee created "SwasthGarbh," an interactive platform to promote prenatal care that is patient-centered and holistic in its outlook.

By assuring on-time antenatal care appointments, documenting each clinical test, and enhancing medication adherence, it benefits expectant mothers. The esteemed peer-reviewed IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics has published a study outlining the advantages of the SwasthGarbh App.

The clinical evaluation of 150 patients showed how useful the app is for enhancing antenatal care quality and minimising problems. Patients who used the app to register for care had considerably more mean antenatal visits and better adherence to WHO recommendations. Additionally, it aids in providing patients with greater guidance about the creation of birth plans and the treatment of physiological issues related to pregnancy. This is the first pregnancy app that offers emergency real-time medical support.

The app has been created

• for guiding expectant mothers with regard to hospital visits, including when they are due and what tests are necessary.
• to document clinical examinations and symptoms
• for automatically notifying the doctor and patient if any parameter is outside of the normal range or if there is any danger sign
• for sending personalised notifications to a specific patient, a group of patients, or all patients.
• for using simple-to-understand movies to inform women of preventive measures during any pandemic
• to support a number of foreign languages
• most significantly, it allows for two-way contact between the patient and the doctor to provide real-time medical help.

The advantages of the App are amplified during pandemic conditions when people are unable to travel to hospitals due to national lockdowns or mobility restrictions or are scared to do so because they run the danger of contracting a coronavirus infection.

In the future, machine learning will be used to forecast the potential appearance of any aberration or disease so that prompt treatment can be provided.