140 Million Women Each Year Receive Risky, Inaccurate, and Painful Vaginal Exams
During labor, manual vaginal exams can be both painful and inaccurate. These subjective exams, based solely on “feel,” frequently result in errors, unnecessary trauma, misjudging the stage of labor and often leading to avoidable interventions, including C-sections. This contributes to millions of unjustified C-sections worldwide.
Manual exams also introduce a significant risk of infection. Because of this risk, the World Health Organization suggests minimizing the amount of internal exams administered. But, they remain essential for OB/GYNs and midwives to gauge labor timing. To compound the issue, because these exams are “feel-based,” when providers are in training, they often need to have a more seasoned professional check their measurement, meaning a laboring mom may receive an exam from two providers consecutively.
The sense of violation from these exams is another significant issue. Around 34% of women report that their birth was a traumatic event. For women with a history of sexual assault, manual vaginal checks can be particularly damaging.
The Ciconia Solution
Ciconia created an AI-based device that is able to take measurements during labor painlessly, with increased accuracy that is not dependent on provider skill, and in private. Because of the accuracy of the device, unnecessary interventions that are a result of mismeasurement can be avoided, and infection becomes a non-issue. Women are also able to avoid the sense of violation because the device can be used privately.
The availability of highly skilled providers is no longer the deciding factor for measurement accuracy. Even in communities where doctors or equipment are limited, women may be able to get an accurate reading with Ciconia’s AI-based device.
Ciconia Medical were semi-finalists in the Mass Challenge, and were part of the 2023 MedTech Cohort of the mHUB Accelerator program and are now part of Matter’s 51Labs Women’s Health Accelerator
How Femovate Helps
Ciconia Medical was awarded sponsorship through Guidea’s Femovate program for ‘23-’24.
As part of the Femovate sponsorship, the digital health experts at Guidea will work with the Ciconia team to design and validate the digital experience for healthcare providers and patients.
For more information about Ciconia Medical, visit www.ciconiamedical.com and follow them on LinkedIn
For more information on Femovate visit www.femovate.com and follow us on LinkedIn
For interviews please contact Theresa Neil
