ATLANTA, March 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Alere Health, LLC, a leader in personal health support solutions , today announced a partnership between the Alere(R) Women’s & Children’s Health Division (WCH) and UK-based Monica Healthcare Ltd, developers of a groundbreaking wireless, wearable fetal-maternal monitor. Alere WCH is the largest U.S. provider of specialized health management services -- supporting over 225,000 pregnancies in 2009. Monica’s AN24(TM) wireless fetal-maternal monitoring solution opens up a whole new world of passive surveillance, flexible management, and patient comfort during pregnancy.
Monica Healthcare’s AN24 electrophysiological monitor allows pregnant women, care managers, and doctors to assess an unborn baby’s wellbeing. It’s actually the first device that allows future moms and doctors to monitor a baby’s status outside the hospital. The pocket-sized device operates on battery power, weighs under 100-grams and performs “non-intrusive passive monitoring.” The highly sensitive device can detect 0.00000001 volts, meaning it can differentiate between a pregnant woman and her baby’s heart signals, and can also gauge fetal position. Moreover, it can transmit real time uterine activity, fetal heart rate, and maternal heart rate analyses (data fetal readings) wirelessly for extended periods of time.
“Monica’s technology, coupled with Alere’s home nursing network and call center infrastructure, makes the Monica AN24 monitor a perfect fit for building on our industry-leading homecare obstetric services. This will empower us to expand into new areas of homecare management with the opportunity to provide home based patients with real-time connectivity and interaction with Alere nurses. We are excited about this dynamic partnership that will continue to drive our objectives to support maternity management with improved pregnancy outcomes while reducing hospitalizations,” said Gregg Raybuck, President of Alere Women’s & Children’s Health.
About Alere Women’s & Children’s Health Division
Alere Women & Children’s Health division delivers services across the entire continuum of maternal-newborn care. Alere’s programs span services from preconception, risk-assessment and education (to identify pregnant women at risk for complications) to postpartum depression screening and the nation’s leading neonatal program for early infant care management. Recently, the company added medical genetic testing and counseling to its list of comprehensive services for women. For additional information visit: www.alere.com/wchealth.
About Monica Healthcare LTD.
Monica Healthcare Ltd (www.monicahealthcare.com) was founded 5 years ago to develop and commercialize unique and patented technology developed over a 15 year period at the University of Nottingham, UK. By working with some of the world’s leading obstetricians and fetal physiologists, Monica has made an outstanding contribution towards the understanding of fetal development and uterine activity. The company will be launching its new VS series of Labor and Delivery monitors in Europe this month, while continuing to innovate and develop technology to support pregnancy and child birth.
AN24 is a registered trademark of Monica Healthcare Limited.
CONTACT: Jan McClure, janm@mccluremedia.com, +1-770-559-1016, for Alere
Health, LLC
Web site: http://www.alere.com/
