Home Ultrasounds Arrive to Bridge America’s Maternal Care Chasm

RAMAT GAN, Israel – June 24, 2026

A landmark partnership announced today promises to bring a crucial component of prenatal care directly into the homes of expectant mothers across the United States. Israeli tech firm Pulsenmore is joining forces with Ouma Health, the nation's largest independent maternity telemedicine company, to integrate its FDA-authorized home ultrasound system into Ouma’s virtual care platform. The collaboration represents more than a business deal; it is a direct technological response to a deepening public health crisis: the systemic failure to provide adequate maternal care in vast stretches of the country.

For millions of women, this initiative could transform the geography of pregnancy, moving essential monitoring from distant, hard-to-reach clinics to the living room. It aims to build a digital bridge over the nation’s growing “maternity care deserts,” challenging a status quo where a mother’s zip code can dangerously dictate her and her baby’s health outcomes.

The Crisis in America's Backyard

The term “maternity care desert” is not a metaphor; it is a stark reality for over 2.3 million American women of childbearing age. According to the March of Dimes, a staggering 35% of U.S. counties lack a single hospital with obstetric services or any practicing obstetricians. The consequences are severe. Research consistently shows that women in these underserved regions receive less prenatal care, face worse health outcomes before pregnancy, and have significantly higher rates of preterm births—with an excess of over 10,000 such births recorded in these areas between 2020 and 2022.

The disparities are most acute along racial and geographic lines. Maternal mortality rates in rural areas are nearly double those in urban centers. For Black women in the most rural counties, the maternal mortality ratio is a devastating 59.3 deaths per 100,000 live births, a figure that starkly contrasts with the 19.7 for their White counterparts in the same counties. These statistics paint a grim picture of a two-tiered system where access is a privilege, not a right. The logistical hurdles—long-distance travel, time off work, childcare costs—create formidable barriers that prevent consistent, high-quality prenatal care.

“With 35% of U.S. counties classified as maternal care deserts, virtual care models combined with home ultrasound technology will play an important role in closing critical access gaps for expectant mothers,” said Dr. Elazar Sonnenschein, Founder and CEO of Pulsenmore, in the announcement. His statement underscores the fundamental challenge this partnership seeks to address.

A Technological Lifeline

The collaboration hinges on Pulsenmore's ES system, the first and only self-scanning ultrasound device to receive FDA De Novo marketing authorization for home use. The handheld transducer, weighing just over half a pound, connects to a standard smartphone. Under a clinician's prescription, an expectant mother can perform guided scans between 14 and 38 weeks of gestation to determine the fetal heart rate. The system is carefully designed to complement, not replace, comprehensive in-clinic diagnostic ultrasounds.

This technology will be integrated into the robust virtual care network of Ouma Health. Founded and run by maternal-fetal medicine specialists, Ouma is licensed to practice in all 50 states and is enrolled with Medicaid in over 20, making it a powerful vehicle for deployment. Their platform already connects patients with a wide range of specialists, from MFM experts to psychiatric nurse practitioners and lactation consultants.

“Pulsenmore's technology gives us a way to bring more of the prenatal monitoring experience into the home, while keeping patients connected to a clinical team that can review the information and guide next steps,” explained Dr. Sina Haeri, CEO of Ouma Health. “This partnership helps us make virtual maternity care more clinically complete, especially for patients who cannot easily access specialty care in person.”

For a high-risk patient in rural Montana or the Mississippi Delta, this means a clinician in another state can guide her through a scan in real-time or review the images asynchronously. It allows for more frequent check-ins without the burden of an all-day journey to the nearest specialist, potentially catching complications earlier and providing peace of mind.

Redefining the Patient Journey

The true measure of this system will be its impact on the human experience of pregnancy. For the patient, the process is designed for simplicity. The Pulsenmore app guides her through the scan, and the video clips are securely transmitted to her Ouma Health care team. This shift empowers patients, giving them a more active role in their care and mitigating the anxiety that comes with uncertainty between infrequent appointments.

For clinicians, the integration promises greater efficiency and insight. Ouma’s platform already uses AI as an “expert assistant” to help surface risk factors, automate documentation, and streamline chart reviews. Adding regular, home-based ultrasound data to this workflow provides a richer, more continuous clinical picture of the patient's pregnancy. It allows providers to manage a larger panel of patients more effectively, a critical factor given the nationwide shortage of MFM specialists.

This model of connected care moves beyond episodic clinic visits to a more proactive and continuous monitoring paradigm. It acknowledges that pregnancy is a 40-week journey, not a series of disconnected appointments, and provides a framework to support mothers throughout.

The Systemic Hurdles to Adoption

Despite its immense promise, the path to widespread adoption is not without challenges. The telehealth market for maternity care is growing rapidly, projected to reach $6 billion by 2033, and competitors like Maven Clinic and Pomelo Care are also vying to reshape the landscape. The success of the Pulsenmore-Ouma model will depend on navigating several complex systems.

First is reimbursement. While Ouma Health’s extensive partnerships with health plans and Medicaid are a significant advantage, ensuring consistent and adequate payment for home-based diagnostics across a patchwork of private and public payers is a persistent hurdle for telehealth innovation. Second, the very communities this technology aims to serve are often on the wrong side of the digital divide. Lower broadband access in maternal care deserts could limit the effectiveness of real-time video consultations, forcing a reliance on less ideal asynchronous methods.

Finally, clinical and patient acceptance is key. The system must be integrated seamlessly into existing care pathways, proving its value as a tool that enhances, rather than disrupts, the provider-patient relationship. While initial studies on telehealth show high patient satisfaction, building trust in a new diagnostic modality performed at home will require careful education and support. The collaboration is poised to generate crucial real-world data that could pave the way for a new standard of care, but its ultimate success will depend on its ability to prove its clinical and economic value within the intricate American healthcare system.