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First, computer science researchers at the University of Washington are testing if a phone app can accurately

monitor a fetus's heart rate during pregnancy. Pediatric cardiologists want to see more testing

before it goes to market and people use it to check on their pregnancies at home. K&KX's

Anna Marie Yanny has more.

Bougita Garrig is a PhD student in computer science and engineering at Udub, and she recently published a study testing if an iPhones, speaker, and microphone can ultimately be

used to estimate fetal heart rate.

It's a process providers usually do in a clinic with ultrasound to check on the

well-being of a fetus. I truly believe that health belongs to everyone, so I want to use my

computing expertise and create accessible health tools, especially for women's health.

Gerig tested her tool in 23 pregnant patients at UW Medicine. A machine learning

model then used the iPhone audio to estimate fetal heart rate. Gareg says those estimates

ended up being within a clinically acceptable range of error. I hope to bring it to the market so that

people can access it. But before that, she wants to test it on thousands of people to help train more sophisticated AI,

including fetuses with irregular heartbeats.

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