To improve access to and the quality of mother and fetus health assessments, Butterfly Network has given 500 of its Butterfly iQ+ ultrasound devices to medical professionals in Kenya.
The only hand-held, whole-body ultrasound probe in the world will be provided to 1,000 healthcare professionals—mostly midwives—in Sub-Saharan Africa as part of a $5 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that was announced earlier this year.
Kenyatta University, another collaborator in the project together with the Global Ultrasound Institute and Jamf, hosted a ceremony. There, local expectant women who received their first ultrasound exams underwent on-site training using the solution.
Many people in the world do not have access to medical imaging equipment or training, which places restrictions on what can be done in terms of determining a patient’s health and risk as well as the risk to the community at large. We are altering that with Butterfly,” said Darius Shahida, chief strategy and business development officer at Butterfly Network.
The Global Ultrasound Institute will teach 50 practitioners in obstetric ultrasound, and by the end of the year, it will have trained 500. Through this, more than 50 facilities in underserved rural areas will gain access to ultrasound technology.
In order to protect patient privacy, Jamf’s software will secure the devices with permission and restriction settings, a quick login procedure, and express scan mode.
“It is essential for mother and the fetus health in Kenya to increase access to medical imaging technology. According to Dr. Kevin Bergman, co-founder and CEO of the Global Ultrasound Institute, “tailored training that hundreds of healthcare providers got through this deployment is equally as vital to extended access.
The remedy uses the first and only whole-body ultrasound-on-chip technology in the world, which can be used with Apple and Android smartphones and tablets to examine various body parts. It is also portable and run by hardware and software connected to the cloud through a mobile app.