TUCSON, Ariz. — Artificial intelligence is creeping into nearly every aspect of life, including one of the most sensitive: healthcare. A Tucson-based tech company is using AI to make pregnancy a safer process for women.
The Journey Pregnancy App from Emagine Solutions Technology helps women track medical markers during and after pregnancy. Now, they’re asking Arizonans to try it out in a new study where the app connects to wearable technology, such as smartwatches or blood pressure monitors.
“Because people have been doing it forever, there’s a perception that that means it’s safe for everyone, and it never has been,” said Sharon Thompson, a longtime physician and Science Advisor for Emagine Solutions Technology.
Thompson says the United States is lagging behind other similarly developed nations in maternal safety. For every 100,000 births in the U.S. in 2024, there were 17.9 deaths. That rate rises for black and indigenous women.
“One of the problems in the United States is that our maternal mortality rate and also morbidity— meaning complications in pregnancy—is way too high,” Thompson said.
As a two-time survivor of preeclampsia, Emagine founder and CEO Courtney Williams is no stranger to the dangers of pregnancy. Her own experience inspired her to create the Journey App.
“I didn’t want anybody else to go through that,” She said. “I didn’t have visibility into my blood pressure trends. I didn’t ask a lot of questions. If I’d had something to monitor my symptoms, I would’ve been able to see the trends.”
The app offers regular check-ins on a user’s blood pressure, heart rate and other health markers with the option to track overall mood or count the kicks a patient feels.
If any of the markers lean outside of a normal range, the app sends a notification first to check again, then to head to a doctor.
“I think people sometimes need the push, the sort of permission to seek medical help,” Williams said. “Especially women when we’re caring for other people other than ourselves.”
Once at the doctor, the Journey app can help patients log and bring up concerns while helping doctors narrow in on any irregularities that may have come up between visits, since Thompson says the average check-up runs around or under 15 minutes.
“You don’t live with a doctor, so there are times when you are home, and there’s a week or two or four between you and your next visit. Things can happen in those times.”
For those in-between times, Journey’s AI doula Aria can answer questions any time of the day or night, backed by thousands of meticulously researched articles.
The app has been around for a few years. Williams says over 45% of their users reported feeling safer during pregnancy.
Now, the Emagine team is looking to expand the Journey app’s reach by conducting a study with funding from the Arizona Commerce Authority to provide health tech bundles to women in Arizona to monitor their experiences during pregnancy with a Fitbit and a blood pressure monitor.
They’re accepting participants on a first-come, first-served basis.
