A smart pad to monitor risks of pre-term birth
Episode #43. Erick Garcia-Cordero – Wednesday 21 April 2021
For this new episode I am delighted to speak with Erick Garcia Cordero, co-founder of Rea.
Pregnant women at risk of a preterm birth spend up to three months in the hospital. However, only 30% of these hospitalised patients will deliver preterm. Together with co-founder Loulia Kassem, Erick is creating a new generation of diagnostic devices for the preterm birth market. Rea’s innovative product, a smart pad, is the only non-invasive medical test to screen for proteins in vaginal secretions related to a risk of a premature birth. With roots in both EPFL and CHUV, this technology will enable pregnant women to perform home monitoring, hence reducing unnecessary hospitalisation and related stress.
In this episode Erick explains how he came to develop this femtech innovation, the major challenges they have been facing, and how their startup has obtained tremendous support from major Swiss institutions. Rea is indeed the first startup to simultaneously secure support from two of the most prestigious innovation grants of the Canton of Vaud, the Innogrant, of EPFL, and the InnoTREK, of CHUV, financed by the Foundation for Technological innovation (FIT).
Enjoy!
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Pre-term birth is one of the biggest challenges in healthcare. It is the main cause of death of children below 5 years old. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Switzerland with the best healthcare service in the world – it is the same thing here as it is in developing countries, such as Mexico or Africa. The technology we develop is just amazing for that, so we have decided to focus our idea on pre-term birth.
? Erick Garcia Cordero – Episode 43
Photographies REA – All rights reserved
