Cambridge, Mass., USA and Tel Aviv, Israel – Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, and Nuvo Group, a private company commercializing INVU by Nuvo™, an FDA-cleared, prescription-initiated, remote pregnancy monitoring platform, today announced a collaboration to develop a more inclusive pregnancy care experience from the prenatal stage through labor and delivery. Through the collaboration, Philips will support Nuvo in facilitating remote fetal monitoring pilot programs that focus on increasing access and adherence to prescribed care in remote areas, beginning with a pilot program in rural Colorado.

More than half (54 percent) of the counties in the USA offer very limited or no access to maternity care [1]. Within these counties, more than 2.2 million women of childbearing age live in full maternity care deserts, which have no hospital offering obstetric care, no birth center, and no obstetric provider [2]. Following the recent White House call to action for organizations to help improve health outcomes for parents and infants, Philips and Nuvo will collaborate to pilot Nuvo’s INVU pregnancy monitoring system as part of an integrated solution for rural care providers and their patients in the USA.

With this collaboration, we are extending the sight and reach of pregnancy care and bringing more remote monitoring options to the communities and expectant mothers where and when they need them most.”
Sandra Lesenfants

General Manager Hospital Patient Monitoring at Philips

“Digital solutions and ecosystem-building are critical enablers to addressing disparities in healthcare such as access to maternal health care in rural settings,” said Sandra Lesenfants, General Manager Hospital Patient Monitoring at Philips. “With this collaboration, we are extending the sight and reach of pregnancy care and bringing more remote monitoring options to the communities and expectant mothers where and when they need them most.”

The USA continues to experience acute staffing shortages in medical care – a challenge common in rural areas long before the COVID-19 pandemic. This initiative has the potential to help ease the burden on providers by shifting a portion of care to the home setting. 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 expectant mother to access simplified data and insights via the paired INVU app, while the provider receives NST readings comparable to deeper fetal surveillance that OB/GYNs are accustomed to receiving during in-office procedures.

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