DeKalb Times

Part of being a new parent is taking countless photos of your child. A Northwestern Medicine study is letting new parents photograph their children before they are even born to help improve health outcomes for people who are pregnant and newborns across the world.  

Northwestern Medicine and Google are collaborating on a project to bring fetal ultrasound to developing countries by combining artificial intelligence (AI), low-cost hand-held ultrasound devices and a smartphone.

The goal of this project is to develop algorithms that interpret ultrasound images to improve the health of both the parent and baby. With AI, people who are pregnant and others can perform fetal ultrasounds at home, with little to no training, to see if they may need additional maternal-fetal care. 

The first step in this project is developing the algorithms with help from patients at Northwestern Medicine, like Megan Augustyniak, who is shown here performing her own ultrasound with a low-cost hand-held device. 

There are 300,000 maternal deaths each year, most of which occur in lower- and middle-income countries. This project aims to bring better maternal-fetal medical care closer to where patients live and work around the world. 

Learn more: https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/.../teaching-ai.../

Original source can be found here.