JioVio Healthcare is a startup that aims to provide positive pregnancy outcomes with its innovation in healthcare technology. Founded by Senthil Kumar Murugesan and Divya Krishnan, the startup has developed SaveMom, a range of devices and apps that work with government agencies and NGOs to offer 1,000-day care for mothers and their newborns in four states.
The Problem of Maternal and Child Mortality in India
India has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world, with 113 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2016-18. Most of these deaths are preventable with timely and quality antenatal care, which includes regular check-ups, monitoring of vital parameters, counselling on nutrition and hygiene, and identification of high-risk pregnancies.
However, many pregnant women in rural and remote areas face barriers to access antenatal care, such as lack of awareness, transportation, affordability, and availability of skilled health workers. As a result, they miss out on essential interventions that could save their lives and those of their babies.
According to UNICEF, India also accounts for 20 percent of the global burden of under-five mortality, with 824,000 deaths in 2019. About two-thirds of these deaths occur in the first year of life, and half of them within the first month. The main causes are prematurity, low birth weight, infections, birth asphyxia, and congenital anomalies.
Again, most of these deaths can be averted with proper antenatal, intrapartum, and postnatal care, which includes immunization, breastfeeding, kangaroo mother care, management of complications, and referral to higher-level facilities when needed.
The Solution: SaveMom by JioVio Healthcare
SaveMom is a suite of IoT-based maternal healthcare solutions that aim to bridge the gap between pregnant women in rural areas and quality healthcare services. It consists of three components:
- SaveMom Kit: A portable device that can measure blood pressure, blood glucose, fetal heart rate, uterine contractions, temperature, and oxygen saturation. It can also record the weight and height of the mother. The device is connected to a mobile app that can send the data to a cloud server for analysis by AI algorithms. The app also provides educational content on pregnancy care, reminders for appointments and medications, alerts for emergencies, and a chatbot for queries.
- SaveMom Hub: A telemedicine platform that connects the pregnant women with doctors and nurses who can review their data, provide feedback, prescribe medications, and refer them to higher-level facilities if needed. The platform also enables video consultations and group counselling sessions.
- SaveMom Dashboard: A web-based interface that allows the health workers and administrators to monitor the progress of the pregnant women enrolled in the program. It provides real-time data visualization, risk stratification, performance indicators, and analytics
The SaveMom solution is designed to provide 1,000-day care for mothers and their newborns, which covers the period from conception to two years after birth. This is based on the evidence that this is a critical window of opportunity to improve maternal and child health outcomes.
The Impact: Saving Lives Across Four States
JioVio Healthcare started commercial deployment of SaveMom in 2019. Since then, it has impacted more than 36,000 pregnant women who completed a 1,000-day care programme in tribal villages of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Maharashtra.
Some of the achievements of SaveMom are:
- Reduced maternal mortality rate by 80 percent
- Reduced neonatal mortality rate by 60 percent
- Increased antenatal care coverage by 95 percent
- Increased institutional delivery rate by 90 percent
- Increased postnatal care coverage by 85 percent
- Increased immunization coverage by 100 percent
- Increased exclusive breastfeeding rate by 75 percent
JioVio Healthcare works with various partners such as government agencies, NGOs, corporates, and social enterprises to implement SaveMom in different regions. Some of their partners are:
- National Health Mission
- UNICEF
- World Health Organization
- Tata Trusts
- WISH Foundation
- Piramal Foundation
- NASSCOM Foundation
- Rotary International
The Future: Scaling Up and Innovating Further
JioVio Healthcare has a vision to reach one million pregnant women by 2025. To achieve this, it plans to scale up its operations across India and abroad, and leverage its data and AI capabilities to create more personalized and predictive maternal care solutions.
The startup is also working on developing new products such as:
- SaveMom Neo: A wearable device that can monitor the vital signs of newborns and alert the parents and health workers in case of any abnormalities.
- SaveMom Pro: A professional version of SaveMom Kit that can be used by doctors and nurses in hospitals and clinics to provide advanced maternal care services.
- SaveMom Home: A home-based version of SaveMom Kit that can be used by pregnant women who prefer to stay at home or have limited access to health facilities.
JioVio Healthcare is a shining example of how technology can be used to solve real-life problems and save lives. By providing affordable, accessible, and quality maternal healthcare solutions to rural women, it is contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals of reducing maternal and child mortality, and ensuring healthy lives for all.
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