Digital Health Platform to Reduce Stillbirths

The Challenge

Stillbirths remain a critical global challenge, often due to a lack of timely insights into fetal well-being. UCD’s goals were:

• Reduce stillbirths by enabling continuous fetal health monitoring outside of clinical settings.
• Harness sensor technology through a wearable band to track fetal movements in real time.
• Build a scalable platform to collect, store, and analyze sensor data using AI/ML for predictive insights.

The Solution

BTC leveraged Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and a MyStudies-inspired framework to implement a scalable digital platform for UCD’s research study:

• Mobile App + Device Integration: A custom app was developed to pair with wearable bands that track fetal movement data from study participants.
• GCP-Hosted Backend Services: A secure backend captured and stored data from WiFi-enabled microcontroller-based devices in real time.
• Data Processing Pipelines: Integrated data streams were processed, stored, and visualized using cloud-native services for researchers and clinicians.

Dashboards for Study Participants & Clinicians: Visual summaries and real-time access to movement data improved engagement and decision-making.

Platform: Mobile – iOS and Android

Technology:

• Frontend: HTML,CSS Angular, TypeScript, Jasmine, ESLint
• Backend: Java, Spring Boot 2.x, Spring MVC, Spring Security 
• Database: MySQL
• GCP Services: Firestore, Cloud Storage, StackDriver, CloudBuild
• DevOps tools: Terraform, Docker, Maven
• Web server: Tomcat, NGINX.

The Outcome

• Enhanced Study Participation: A mobile-first approach improved participant adherence and reduced drop-off rates.
• Real-Time Monitoring: Clinicians and researchers accessed fetal movement trends as they occurred, aiding better oversight.
• Cost-Effective Deployment: By building on BTC’s reusable GCP-based architecture, UCD minimized time-to-launch and overall study costs.
• Modular Design: The platform can be reused or extended for other maternal or longitudinal health studies.

Conclusion:

BTC helped UCD realize a research-ready digital health platform to track, store, and visualize fetal health data at scale. With GCP and reusable infrastructure inspired by MyStudies, UCD now has a cost-effective, scalable model that can power future maternal health studies around the world.