Sonio’s mission is to contribute to access to high quality care for women and children worldwide thanks to artificial and collective intelligence.
On the mother's side, too many women still die due to pregnancy complications. In France, it has been estimated that 58% of the maternal deaths were probably or possibly avoidable.
On the foetus side, according to EUROCAT network, 2,7% of the foetus have at least one congenital malformations. Most of the studies conclude that 50% of the congenital malformations are not detected antenatally and that these screening rates vary a lot depending on the geographic location (i.e physicians expertise). An undiagnosed congenital malformation constitutes a greater risk of mortality for the newborn, especially, abnormalities requiring specific and urgent care at birth (e.g. transposition of the great arteries). Ultrasound is both relatively inexpensive and allows access to a large part of the foetal anatomy and the detection of obstetric complications. The limit is therefore rather access to clinical expertise rather than the technical improvement of ultrasound.
A very high number of potential malformations is accessible in all foetal anatomical regions (more than 400), knowing that these malformations can be isolated or part of a poly-malformative syndrome (9000 syndromes referenced in Orphanet, including 800 accessible on foetal ultrasound). In this context, learned societies have produced increasingly comprehensive and demanding protocols putting more pressure on practitioners. The latest recommendations from ISUOG 2022 include 20 mandatory ultrasound plans showing 42 anatomical structures. As a result, doctors may forget the mandatory views, leading to underdiagnosis. Even when the examination is exhaustive as to which views to acquire, a congenital anomaly can go unnoticed. In this context, artificial intelligence is a tool of choice for strengthening the skills of health practitioners. It has been shown that using a checklist can improve exam pass rates from 49% to 97%. However, checklists are little used in practice because their use is cumbersome and time-consuming. Sonio can democratise and generalise the use of a checklist. AI also has the potential to provide clinical and diagnostic information by detecting abnormal ultrasound signs on an image that may be related to a congenital malformation, recommending the next abnormalities to check for, and providing an interpretation on the phenotype/genotype correlation.
