New wearable monitoring system will improve clinical assessment of fetal health

Carnegie Mellon has been awarded ARPA-H contract to transform care in childbirth.

Carnegie Mellon University is leading a multi-university team that has secured an award of up to $39.3 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to develop a wearable monitoring system to better identify fetal distress and its cause, enabling a safer labor and delivery experience for mothers and babies.

“When a fetus is suspected to be hypoxic, care teams may have to act quickly without knowing the underlying cause,” said Jana Kainerstorfer (ASciNA Pennsylvania Co-Chapterhead), Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon and Principal Investigator of OMEGA.

“The ability to directly measure a lack of oxygen to the fetus, and identify the cause, will have significant implications for obstetric care by enabling safer deliveries for all.”

Jana Kainerstorfer, Professor, Biomedical Engineering

Further information: https://engineering.cmu.edu/news-events/news/2026/06/23-transform-childbirth-care.html

Faculty Profile: https://www.cmu.edu/bme/People/Faculty/profile/jkainerstorfer.html