CognitiveCare has announced the launch of an artificial intelligence (AI) platform called MIHIC (Maternal Infant Health Insights and Cognitive Intelligence) to detect maternal, fetal, and infant health risks early. MIHIC is the only platform globally that leverages AI and advanced computing capabilities to analyse all medical, clinical, genetic, radiological, social, and lifestyle determinants to predict early signs of maternal, infant, and fetal risks in pregnant women.

The Hyderabad registered and US based startup was founded in 2018 by Venkata Narasimham Peri and Dr Suresh Attili. Their early work in maternal and infant health yielded extraordinary results – both the accuracy of prediction and the range of risks that can be predicted – prompted them to bring a laser focus on maternal and infant health. After bootstrapping the company with $300K, they have raised $900K in the seed round with a pre-money valuation of $8M. The funds have been deployed to complete the first version of MIHIC and launch the sales and marketing efforts.

Venkata Narasimham Peri, Founder, CEO, Cognitive Care said, “We lose more than 800 women during pregnancy every day globally and millions more go through very complex pregnancies. Advancements in science and medicine, notwithstanding, healthy childbirth still eludes millions of women globally. Evidence strongly points out that more than two-third of maternal and infant health complications can be prevented with early detection and intervention.”

Dr Suresh Attili, Chief Scientist, Co-Founder, CognitiveCare, said, “Nothing pleases a clinician more than detecting a particular risk early. The earlier we detect, the more empowered we will be in offering the most optimal intervention. We are building CognitiveCare to empower every obstetrician/gynaecologist in the world to predict every possible risk in the pregnancy early.”

Dr Louis Muglia, President, CEO, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, said, “CognitiveCare's innovative approach has tremendous promise and potential. As a clinician and research scientist, I feel that CognitiveCare's mission to detect, quantify, and stratify pregnant mothers’ risk across multiple outcomes can offer new insights into managing pregnancies through early intervention.” 

Dr Amy Murtha, Chair, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Reproductive medicine, said, “Computational sciences and Artificial Intelligence have made significant advances and offer a tremendous opportunity to detect maternal and infant health risks early.”

“Dr Shantha Kumari, President-elect, Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI), said, “Achieving the ideal reduced maternal and infant mortality rates SDG 2030 continues to remain a challenge for India. Although significant strides have been made, we still have population segments that continue to get impacted disproportionately. We must find ways to identify these risks as early as possible to deal with avoidable causes.