King's College London has launched the EMBRACE program, a groundbreaking research initiative utilizing Garmin wearable devices to monitor physiological metrics such as heart rate, sleep, activity levels, and Body Battery™ in pregnant women and their partners, aiming to develop AI algorithms for predicting and managing pregnancy-related health conditions.

The program focuses on conditions like gestational diabetes, hypertension, and perinatal depression, with the goal of improving maternal health outcomes through AI-supported care strategies.

Participants will include up to 40,000 adults, with an additional 20,000 infants, totaling 60,000 participants from countries including the UK, Canada, China, Ghana, Peru, and Spain, to enhance research on maternal and child health.

Garmin has announced a historic partnership with King's College London during the Garmin Health Summit, making Garmin the exclusive smartwatch provider for the EMBRACE project, which is Garmin's largest research collaboration to date involving biometric data collection.

This collaboration underscores Garmin’s expanding role in clinical health monitoring and highlights its commitment to integrating wearable technology into research to address global healthcare challenges.

The initiative is supported by a record-breaking donation from philanthropic organization Inkfish, which is the largest single gift in King's College London’s history, funding maternal, child, and lifelong health initiatives.

During the Garmin Health Summit, Garmin also announced new smartwatches, including the Venu 4, Bounce 2, and Instinct Crossover AMOLED, expanding their product lineup for health and fitness.

Garmin’s Health Ecosystem will facilitate data integration and real-time biometric data collection through APIs and SDKs, ensuring compliance with privacy policies and supporting third-party research and health monitoring.

AI-based prediction models will analyze collected data to identify digital biomarkers, supporting personalized health interventions and aiming for a 40% reduction in gestational diabetes and hypertension.

The research also emphasizes promoting physical activity during pregnancy, monitoring activity levels of women and their partners to encourage exercise as medicine.

Garmin’s wearables have a versatile history, previously used in space missions and Parkinson’s disease research, demonstrating their reliability and adaptability in diverse health and research settings.

The initiative aims to leverage technological advances like AI to enhance health monitoring, research, insurance, and innovation in maternal and neonatal care.