NEW YORK, NY — September 8, 2026. The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of any high-income nation—18.6 deaths per 100,000 live births according the CDS/NCHS data and 87% of pregnancy-related deaths are considered preventable, per the CDC’s most recent Maternal Mortality Review Committee data. 

Today, HITLAB, the New York City–based health innovation and technology organization, announced a partnership with BobiHealth to put a direct response to that crisis to the test: a prospective clinical pilot study measuring whether AI-powered pregnancy monitoring can catch danger earlier, improve outcomes, and prove its value where it matters most — in real-world care.

BobiHealth is an AI-powered maternal health monitoring platform that delivers real-time, clinical-grade risk detection and evidence-based alerts directly to pregnant users and their care teams. The platform continuously tracks key maternal vitals — including blood pressure, heart rate, blood oxygen, weight, glucose, and self-reported symptoms — using AI to flag early signs of high-risk conditions such as preeclampsia. The goal is straightforward: alert users of warning signs early enough to act on them, closing the gaps in timely care that drive preventable complications and death.

The initial 30-day pilot will enroll 20 participants in a pre/post design, measuring early signals of value across three dimensions: clinical outcomes, economic impact, and workflow efficiency. Those findings will inform an expanded study of up to 100 participants over 12 months of follow-up — building toward the evidence base that payers and providers require before adopting a new standard of care.

“Too many mothers are still dying from causes we know how to prevent — and too many promising tools never get the rigorous evaluation that would move them into standard care,” said Dr. Stan Kachnowski, Chair of HITLAB. “This study is built to answer the question every breakthrough eventually faces — does it work in the real world, under real conditions? — with evidence, not assumptions. That’s how a promising pilot becomes a provable, payable standard of care.”

“Every day, we watch BobiHealth catch things that would otherwise be missed — and behind every one of those alerts is a mother and a baby,” said Dave Esra, President and CEO of BobiHealth. “Partnering with HITLAB lets us prove that impact independently and rigorously. Real-world evidence is what turns a tool that works into care that expectant parents everywhere can actually access — and it’s the foundation of the pilot-to-payment program we’re building toward.”

HITLAB will lead all aspects of the study, including IRB and regulatory management, site identification and activation, participant recruitment, data collection and analysis, and publication of findings through a white paper and a peer-reviewed manuscript. Results will be disseminated across the maternal health and payer communities, including presentations at the Fall 2026 HITLAB Innovators Summit in New York City, The August HITLAB Symposium, and a HITLAB Women’s Health Tech Initiative.