Ava Unveils New Feature That Detects Bi-Phasic Shift in User's Monthly Cycle to Help Confirm Ovulation
ZURICH and SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ava, a medical technology company best known for its popular fertility-tracking Ava bracelet, announced it has added a new feature that will help provide users with key insights into whether they have ovulated during a monthly cycle.
Starting today, Ava will automatically assess user data to detect a biphasic shift in physiological parameters during a woman's cycle. In a biphasic pattern, some of the physiological parameters including skin temperature and pulse rate increase in response to the increase in progesterone after ovulation. This is important because most women with ovulatory cycles exhibit a biphasic parameters pattern on their charts, and a key factor in getting pregnant is for ovulation to occur. However, up to 12 percent of women actually have anovulatory cycles, i.e., cycles without an ovulation.
"Besides wanting to know when the fertile window is, our Ava users typically want to know if they have ovulated at all, and so we believe this new feature meets a critical demand," said Lea von Bidder, CEO and Co-Founder of Ava, noting that Ava is the only device available today that can detect a bi-phasic pattern not just based on temperature, but also based on other parameters such as pulse rate. "This is a critical difference, as in some cases, the shift in parameters can't be seen in temperature, but Ava's algorithm may still recognize it in other parameters related to progesterone."
Ava Launches with Clinical Trial on Detection of Infections During Pregnancy
Ava also this week announced that the University Hospital of Zurich has started a clinical trial to study Ava's potential use to detect the onset of infection during pregnancy. The newest study seeks to identify clinically significant changes in the physiological parameters measured by the bracelet that will allow Ava to develop an algorithm to identify the onset of an infection during pregnancy, which can be life-threatening for mother and baby and lead to premature delivery. Early recognition of such infections via a change in physiological parameters as measured by Ava would ultimately enable earlier and better therapy and reduce health risks of users.
Led by Prof. Brigitte Leeners, the study will monitor 50 women wearing who are hospitalized with PPROM (preterm premature rupture of membranes) for the 24 hours from rupture to infection. Patient participants will be provided with Ava bracelets and researchers will study patterns in the data collected.
"Ideally insights from this research will enable us to develop features for Ava that can provide users with a pregnancy monitoring service that screens for complications and thus significantly improves the chance to identify critical infection situations early on," said Ava Vice President of Research and Development Peter Stein. "We see this as yet another step in the direction of developing technology that can truly improve and possibly even save women's lives."
About Ava
Founded in Switzerland in 2014 by Pascal Koenig, Philipp Tholen, Peter Stein and Lea von Bidder, Ava is a medical technology company dedicated to bringing innovation to women's reproductive health. The Ava bracelet, which received The Bump's "Best of Baby Tech CES 2017" award for fertility and pregnancy, is the company's first consumer product. It uses sensor technology combined with clinically tested data science to precisely detect a woman's fertile window in real time. The company is also conducting clinical studies to adapt and expand its algorithms for use in pregnancy monitoring, and future use as a non-hormonal contraceptive device. Backed by $12.3M in seed and Series A funding, Ava has operations in Zurich and San Francisco.
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