Product History

The technology Monica Healthcare is developing is based around IP built up over 15 years by the Medical Electronics Group of the University of Nottingham. The tiny electrical signals generated by the fetal heartbeat and other electrophysiological events, which are present on the maternal abdomen, have been the focus of this research. This resulted in the development of the Care 2000 prototype devices, developed with sponsorship from Action Medical Research. It is an ultra low noise, long-term ambulatory electrophysiological data logger.

The Care 2000 Unit is the size of a walkman and has undergone a number of developments over its history.  It was used on over 400 mothers, with more than 700 recordings of fetal/maternal electrophysiological data, at the Queen's Medical Centre Nottingham - spanning 20 weeks to term.

Fetal/maternal electrophysiological signal recordings from an early version of the Care 2000 demonstrated the excellent correlation of the extracted FHR in comparison with conventional Doppler ultrasound fetal heart recording. The electrophysiological signals can also be used to extract fetal position, uterine activity information, and fetal ECG morphology parameters.

Experience with the Care 2000 provided the basis for the commercial development.