'Next generation' device could herald breakthrough in prediction of preterm birth

Doctors and scientists from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Sheffield to use pioneering technology to develop and test new device that could predict onset of premature labour.
Small pencil-tip probe detects properties that are known to change in the cervix prior to the onset of premature labour.
Once tested, all pregnant women could be offered an assessment of their risk of premature labour during their mid-pregnancy anomaly scan, between the 18th and 20th week of pregnancy.
Award of £792,753 from the NIHR i4i scheme to develop and test a clinical grade magnetic impedance spectroscopy device for assessment of the cervix in pregnant women to predict preterm birth.
Warm congratulations to Professor Dilly Anumba, Academic Unit of Reproductive and Developmental Medicine, and his colleagues: Dr Timothy James Healey, Clinical Engineering, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Professor Simon Dixon, HEDS Group ScHARR; Professor Stephen Walters, ScHARR; Mrs Mags Openshaw, PPI Co-applicant.