Yet another app is emerging as a possible real-world competitor, and the Imagine Cup hasn't even held its final contest yet.
The latest app to catch the industry's eye: momEcare, created by Shawn Frank, a University of Wollongong student at the college's Dubai campus.
The app provides low-cost pregnancy and childbirth education for women in poor, remote villages, according to a report at The National. Local health workers can use the software to communicate with physicians, and diagnose problems. The system also provides online tutorials concerning stages of pregnancy, pre- and postnatal hygiene and childbirth itself. It also includes an online database where clinicians can track their patients' progress through their pregnancies.
"About 90 percent of the maternal deaths happen because people do not have basic information, which could be as simple as hygiene-related issues and most of them are easily curable," Frank tells The National. He adds that he plans to give control of the app over to the United Nations, so it can be used provided to governments around the globe.
Frank will be up against 33 other developers in the regional finals on April 25 in the UAE. If momEcare makes the cut, it's on to New York later this year to compete against entries from 120 countries, including, perhaps, LifeLens.
In the real world, it will be interesting to see if Frank's new idea stands up to growing market players like Text4Baby.
For more information:
- check out the story at The National
- learn more at MicrosoftFeed
- compare momEcare to other Gulf-based projects