Garmin smartwatches help HeraMED transform maternity care

Medical innovation has transformed patient care over the past several decades. However, experts say maternity care has not kept up, burdened by an outdated care model, rising costs, limited access to virtual providers and a growing shortage of health care professionals. Research shows virtual care can help improve access throughout the pregnancy, delivery and even post-partum medical journey.

That’s what remote maternity care platform HeraMED is addressing. And they’re using Garmin smartwatches to help.

How is HeraMED revolutionising maternity care with Garmin smartwatches?

HeraMED is an Australian-based medical technology and data company that’s revolutionising pregnancy and natal care through HeraCARE, a proprietary and clinically validated end-to-end digital platform that is supplied by health care providers. The cloud-based solution aims to redefine how care is delivered and experienced with the goal of improving outcomes, increasing system efficiency, and reducing costs for mothers and health systems.

Designed to deliver safe, connected and continuous care, HeraCARE is bringing the convenience and efficiency of telehealth into maternity care by using data from Garmin smartwatches to provide personalised insights and feedback for care.

“Together, we’re pioneering a new era of maternity care where wearable data empowers continuous, compassionate support for every pregnancy, everywhere,” said Anoushka Gungadin, CEO and managing director of HeraMED.

A few of the HeraCARE features that use Garmin smartwatches to enhance the experience include home vitals monitoring, device-agnostic integration, telehealth, personalised care plans and automated escalation of care. HeraCARE also provides communication tools, educational resources and HeraBEAT: an FDA-cleared and CE-marked fetal heart rate monitor designed to use at home.

The Garmin Health API offers a broad integration of Garmin smartwatches with HeraCARE.

Garmin smartwatches allow for improved continuous monitoring capabilities for pregnant women while the high-quality and wide range of data enables more informed decision-making.

HeraCARE users will be able to seamlessly connect their Garmin devices for a more comprehensive view of maternal health. This integration is expected to significantly expand the platform’s existing capabilities, which include fetal and maternal heart rate monitoring, blood pressure tracking and mood assessment.

Pregnant women who consent to sharing their health and fitness activity data will wear Garmin smartwatches and have their health data collected and integrated into the HeraCARE platform to support a healthy pregnancy through tailored insights, alerts and guidance. The platform not only enables health care providers to monitor their patients but  also can help support potential early detection of complications. The data collected includes the following:

• Heart rate monitoring¹: With wrist-based heart rate tracking on Garmin smartwatches, resting heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) can provide insights into cardiovascular health and overall well-being during pregnancy.
• Activity levels: This helps monitor daily movement and exercise patterns, including walking and steps, helping ensure patients maintain safe activity levels.
• Sleep tracking¹: Advanced sleep tracking on Garmin smartwatches evaluates sleep duration and quality, which are important for maternal and fetal health.
• Stress tracking¹: This feature can help HeraMED identify patterns of physiological stress that may warrant further support or intervention.

Why is Garmin essential?

Collaboration with Garmin plays a key role in delivering proactive, personalised maternity care. By integrating data from Garmin smartwatches into the HeraMED platform, fitness and lifestyle data can complement clinical data and health indicators. This provides real-time insights and enables time-critical interventions, and comfort for pregnant women, including those in remote and rural areas.

“Our collaboration with Garmin is more than integration — it’s innovation,” Gungadin said. “Garmin is a globally recognised brand that has developed a specific smartwatch technology strategy for women. It is a significant step forward in our mission to revolutionise maternity care.”

Garmin smartwatches for women offer features — including pregnancy tracking, menstrual cycle tracking with skin temperature for enhanced period start dates and ovulation predictions², sleep tracking, HRV, and peace of mind with LiveTrack³ and incident detection and assistance — are designed to help women live their best lives.

HeraMED collaborated with Garmin because of its reputation for accuracy, reliability, and versatility in wearable health tracking and commitment to women’s health. Garmin smartwatches offer robust sensor data, long battery life and seamless user experience, which are essential for continuous and unobtrusive monitoring during pregnancy.

Garmin helps HeraMED bridge the gap between everyday life and high-quality maternal care to turn smartwatch data into meaningful, real-world support.

“By incorporating Garmin high-quality sensor data into HeraCARE, we’re expanding and enhancing our ability to provide continuous, real-time health insights to expectant mothers and their health care providers,” Gungadin said. “We are delighted to bring health and wellness data into our clinical-grade platform for the purpose of transforming the model of care for maternity.”

Could Garmin smartwatch technology and the Garmin Health connected ecosystem play a vital role in your next health or clinical study? Contact us today to find out more.

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¹_{See Garmin.com/ataccuracy}

²_{The menstrual cycle tracking feature should not be used in support of conception, contraception or birth control. This is not a medical device and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or monitoring of any medical condition.}

³_{When paired with a compatible smartphone. For safety and tracking features requirements and limitations, see Garmin.com/safety.}