receives grant to improve quality and accessibility of maternal care in low- and middle-income countries
Summary
Amsterdam, the Netherlands Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced it has received a USD 15.4 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) based application suite to improve the quality and accessibility of obstetric care in low- and middle-income countries, especially in underserved communities. By helping front-line healthcare workers such as midwives to identify potential problems in pregnancy at an early stage, the project aims to significantly reduce the number of women who die as a result of pregnancy - currently around 830 women every day worldwide [1] - while reducing fetal mortality and morbidity. The project plans to develop an application suite that will be deployed on Philips Handheld Ultrasound Lumify which is currently in widespread use in community-based mother and child care programs around the world. It also builds on the expertise of the Philips Foundation, providing access to quality healthcare for underserved communities worldwide, including a program in Kenya to educate midwives to deliver ultrasound-based antenatal pregnancy screening in village clinics, while receiving telehealth support from radiologists at distance. This effort to use AI to help deliver high quality pre-natal care to the vast number of women in the world who cannot easily access it is a perfect example of what we believe AI should be used for - empowering healthcare professionals to help them deliver faster and more efficient care to help improve patient outcomes.