NewLife – Ensures the health of mothers and babies

There is a growing interest in the well-being of expectant mothers and newborns, both before and after childbirth, with the aim of minimizing and preventing serious complications. The NewLife project, a significant initiative within the EU, will develop new non-invasive technologies, in the form of wearable sensors, to collect vital data, advanced algorithms, and cloud-based solutions for analysis and presentation for healthcare professionals and parents. This holistic approach aims to ensure the health of mothers and children before and after birth.

NewLife is a three-year project consisting of a large consortium with a total of 25 partners from 6 different EU countries. The consortium's innovative initiative is supported by the EU's Chips Joint Undertaking (Chips JU) program with a total funding of 19.3 million euros, co-funded by the project partners matching this investment. The project officially started with a kickoff in Eindhoven in January 2023.

Background

In Europe, approximately five million infants are born every year, with up to 10% of them arriving prematurely, imposing significant financial strain on healthcare systems. This strain arises not just from the immediate expenses associated with intensive neonatal care but, more significantly, from the enduring, adverse consequences and complications that can emerge. The proactive solution to this issue lies in the meticulous monitoring of pregnancies and the timely identification and prediction of risks and complications, all made possible through cutting-edge digital technologies. Newlife is poised to address this pressing challenge during the most delicate phase of life. 

Project goal

Newlife aims to safeguard the health of mothers and their infants by developing innovative holistic monitoring solutions. The project partners of Newlife will collectively showcase various technologies to enable the early and non-invasive detection of pregnancy-related risk factors and newborn health issues.

The project seeks to create groundbreaking non-invasive technologies for collecting vital data concerning mothers and infants. It aims to construct cloud-based solutions for the presentation of this data, ensuring the well-being of individuals during this critical phase of life. The Newlife consortium members will explore how advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) can maximize the potential of these novel technologies and solutions. To gain clinical acceptance, the developed solutions must seamlessly integrate into clinical workflows, prioritizing data integration, security, safety, and medical qualifications.

Newlife will pioneer digital healthcare solutions for remote screening and the early identification of pregnancy-related risk factors, aiming to revolutionize pediatric and obstetric care through digital health ecosystems. These ecosystems will center around digital platforms, health monitoring wearables, devices, applications, and services, empowering individuals to enhance their health and enabling medical professionals to take proactive measures.

The technologies and solutions developed in this project will be demonstrated through five distinct use cases, applicable to both hospitals and personalized in-home monitoring environments.

RISE’s role

RISE will lead one of the project use cases (Use case 2) aiming to develop and test technologies for monitoring pregnancies and complications. This multiple-parameter solution, is built to distinguish between maternal and fetal vital signs. This comprehensive solution encompasses various reusable components, including wearables for monitoring vital parameters, sustainable sensorized garments, and standalone wearable sensing systems. This solution will be coupled with additional analytical tools, catering to pre-eclampsia testing and glucose monitoring through a micro-needle patch.

In addition to RISE's technical expertise, we bring our cutting-edge manufacturing capabilities to the consortium. These capabilities are located at the Printed Electronics Arena (PEA), a distinguished Innovation Cluster and an EU Key Pilot Line financed by VINNOVA, Smarter Electronics Systems, Norrköping Municipality, Region Östergötland, and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. While taking the lead in developing the sensorized garment (UC2), RISE offers its competences to both the international consortium and our Swedish partners. We support them in optimizing manufacturing processes (printing), electronics design, hardware prototyping, sensor characterization, firmware development, and data processing.

In the Swedish context, RISE will support Cuviva AB in developing a hardware solution tailored to provide essential data for validating Cuviva's digital communication platform. RISE will also collaborate with Beneli in realizing the hardware solutions associated with UC2 and UC5. We will lead the effort at lower TRL (Technology Readiness Level), assisting Beneli in developing new knowledge in areas such as electronic integration, garment washability encapsulation, and test-proposed processes. As the project progresses, RISE will gradually transfer knowledge and processes to Beneli to enable large-scale prototyping of various use cases (UCs).

RISE's core activities encompass the design, electronic layout, and manufacturing processes of the sensorized garment. Collaborating closely with partner Beneli, we engage in activities related to garment design, manufacturing, and electromechanical testing. The development of processes is a joint endeavor between RISE and Beneli, with a long-term vision of prototyping the envisioned wearables and strengthening Beneli's expertise.

The sensorized garment we develop serves as the primary data source for the Pregnancy & Parent Companion application, which is designed to be used by Cuviva. In this capacity, RISE will support Cuviva, not only by generating relevant data, but also by helping the partner in developing a suitable interface between wearables and the Cuviva application, as well as providing assistance with data processing.

RISE also takes on the role of conducting a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for selected solutions within the project, with a priority given to Use Cases (UC)1 and (UC)2. This assessment aims to provide valuable insights to partners Cuviva and Beneli regarding the sustainability of their developments.

Additionally, RISE supports UC5 (Newborn monitoring - wellbeing in bed) in the development of electronics and data acquisition/analysis.