ATLANTA, GA, USA, December 14, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- In a major stride towards unraveling the complex links between racism and health disparities, Georgia State University has launched a multisite, NIH-funded study titled “Advancing understanding of racism-related health disparities beginning before birth.” Led by Dr. Sierra Carter, the pioneering study will utilize Nuvo’s FDA-cleared remote pregnancy monitoring platform in researching how racism-related stressors experienced by pregnant Black and Latina women impact maternal and fetal health and development.

This multisite study aims to break new ground by examining whether experiences of racism prenatally affect fetal health and development. This will be studied through exploring a process of “biological embedding” of racism measured daily during pregnancy, affecting the health trajectory of not only Black and Latina women but also their offspring. Georgia State University’s collaboration with Nuvo is central to this endeavor. Utilizing Nuvo’s INVU platform, a sophisticated maternal and fetal health monitoring technology, researchers will study maternal and fetal heart rate variability among 400 women in their third trimester of pregnancy. The participants will be assessed once a day for two weeks to gather comprehensive physiological data.

Dr. Carter and her team plan to correlate these heart rate measurements with the health outcomes of the mothers and their babies. The goal is to test the hypothesis that racism, as an enduring stressor, could critically influence the physiological processes of pregnant women and may extend its impact to the next generation through biological pathways.

“By integrating Nuvo’s INVU platform into our research design, we have the unprecedented opportunity to quantify the acute and chronic effects of racism,” Dr. Sierra Carter, Georgia State University principal investigator on the study, explains. “This partnership enhances our ability to measure what was previously intangible—capturing real-time data on how the stress of racial discrimination may be transferred from a mother to her child even before birth.”

Nuvo’s INVU platform, an advanced remote monitoring system, represents a leap forward in fetal and maternal medicine, enabling non-invasive, accurate, and user-friendly data collection. The technology allows for an in-depth analysis of heart rate patterns that may shed light on the health disparities faced by racial and ethnic minorities.

INVU has been used within research projects before, including other principal investigators on the study team, including Dr. Elisabeth Conradt and Dr. Sheila Crowell. Dr. Conradt and Dr. Crowell used INVU in the context of a separate NIH-sponsored trial that investigated the nature of emotion dysregulation within pregnancies. The study sought to understand how prenatal maternal distress is related to children’s health outcomes and used physiological measurements via INVU across more than 200 women in their third trimester of pregnancy to seek biomarkers and patterns.

“We are proud to partner with Georgia State University in this groundbreaking study. The racial disparities in maternal and fetal outcomes are unacceptable,” said Kelly Londy, Nuvo CEO. “Addressing maternal health inequities begins with understanding their origins and we hope this research provides insights on whether racial stressors can have intergenerational effects on mothers’ and babies’ health.”

This comprehensive research initiative, with its blend of rigorous scientific methodology and advanced technology, aspires to move beyond simply documenting disparities. It seeks to elucidate the pathways by which racism-related stress may become biologically ingrained, impacting birth outcomes and potentially predisposing infants to lifelong health challenges.

As Dr. Carter’s team at Georgia State University works closely with Nuvo to navigate this complex research terrain, the implications for public health could be far-reaching. This study holds the promise of informing more culturally sensitive and equitable healthcare practices, fostering early interventions, and ultimately contributing to the eradication of health disparities rooted in racial discrimination.

About Georgia State University
Georgia State University (GSU) is uniquely well-suited to support the GLOW study research. Founded in 1913, Georgia State is a public research university located in Atlanta, Georgia, the capital and largest city in the state, with a metropolitan regional population of more than 5.4 million. Atlanta provides a large and diverse population for conducting behavioral and clinical research. In recognition of GSU’s commitment to research, the State of Georgia has designated it as one of four research universities of the University System of Georgia. GSU is also classified as a Doctoral/Research Extensive University by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. GSU is the largest research institution of higher learning in the University System of Georgia. GSU has created a college and graduate school experience in a vibrant urban environment and has been ranked as a top public university for researchers.The Department of Psychology at Georgia State University also offers a rich environment for the GLOW research to thrive and for Dr. Carter and her team to engage in translational research work in multiple settings and systems.

About Nuvo
Nuvo is committed to reinventing pregnancy care for the 21st century through new technology, tools, and practices for providers and expectant mothers, including the INVU by Nuvo™ platform, an FDA-cleared, prescription initiated remote pregnancy monitoring and management system. The INVU™ sensor band enables the delivery of remote non-stress tests and maternal & fetal heart rate monitoring today while pioneering new data-driven personalized pathways that Nuvo believes will help improve health outcomes for all women in the future. The technology and patent estate that underpin the INVU platform have been awarded a variety of industry recognitions, including Fast Company's Next Big Things in Tech (2021), CB Insights' Digital Health 150 (2020, 2022), and MedTech Innovator's Top 50 MedTech Startups (2021), as well as multiple grants from some of the world's leading academic medical centers and scientific bodies. Nuvo is led by a diverse team of experienced business and medical professionals, dedicated data engineers, software designers and proud parents who embrace a collective mission to give every life a better beginning. For more information and complete indications, contraindications, warnings and precautions along with instructions for use, visit: www.nuvocares.com.

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