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Future Fertility and IVI RMA Global Research Alliance forge landmark commercial partnership to raise standard of care in egg quality assessment
Future Fertility, the leader in AI-powered oocyte quality assessment, and IVI RMA Global, the world’s leading reproductive medicine group, are excited to announce their new strategic commercial partnership.
Under this landmark agreement, Future Fertility’s VIOLET™ tool will be integrated into every egg freezing cycle at IVI RMA’s clinics across Europe and Latin America. Both companies will also collaborate to determine how this technology can be used to assess donor egg quality to provide greater transparency and precision in egg donation treatments.
IVI RMA is renowned for its scientific leadership and adoption of cutting-edge technology to advance patient care. This collaboration marks IVI RMA’s first large-scale AI technology partnership and is the most extensive clinic network partnership to date for Future Fertility.
Future Fertility has rapidly gained adoption within the fertility industry, with its oocyte assessment tools installed in over 100 clinics across more than 25 countries. Its seamless integration with various laboratory setups, from time-lapse to microscope-only environments, and unparalleled patient-facing oocyte quality reports have been the drivers of this momentum.
As the company’s dataset has grown to over 150,000 oocyte images and associated reproductive outcomes, the adoption of these tools is driving the creation of a standard of care for oocyte quality assessment.
“Future Fertility’s AI tools allow our clinics to evaluate oocyte quality with an unprecedented level of objectivity and data-driven precision,” said Prof. Laura Rienzi, head of innovation at IVI RMA.
“Their dedication to thorough clinical validation and peer-reviewed scientific publications provides us with evidence that these tools hold the potential to improve our lab processes, treatment planning and patient experience across our network.”
“Partnering with IVI RMA is an incredibly exciting milestone for us,” said Christy Prada, CEO of Future Fertility.
“This is a true testament to the value of our oocyte reports from an extremely prestigious leader in clinical care, and a strong validation of our scientific approach from the largest clinical network in fertility care globally.”
Empowering egg freezing patients with personalised insights
Historically, fertility specialists estimated an egg freezing patient’s chance of success based on age and the number of mature eggs retrieved.
Future Fertility’s deep learning model personalises fertility care by evaluating each egg’s unique likelihood of developing into a blastocyst based on its image. VIOLET™ reports also provide each patient with their personal chance of achieving a live birth from the eggs they’ve frozen.
Dr Antonio Requena, IVI RMA’s group medical director, emphasised the impact on patient care: “These individualised insights allow our clinical team to customise treatment plans to each patient’s specific needs, offering essential clarity on treatment expectations and improving patient counselling for future steps.”
“The current standard of care in reproductive medicine includes standardised methods to evaluate sperm, embryos, and the endometrium – but not the egg,” says Dr Dan Nayot, chief medical officer and co-founder at Future Fertility.
“Our team has been able to address this gap with AI so that patients and their fertility care teams can be empowered with precise information to make more-informed decisions along the path to parenthood.”
Long-term scientific partnership and expanded commercial collaboration
IVI RMA, ever committed to the scientific advancement of reproductive medicine, first began utilising Future Fertility’s tools in egg quality-focused research at its leading clinics in Spain in 2022.
Dr Marcos Meseguer, scientific director at IVI Valencia, highlighted the benefits of these tools in driving new avenues for investigation: “Future Fertility’s oocyte AI has created the opportunity for us to study and better understand the impact of different clinical approaches on egg quality.
“As the first player to develop this type of solution, they are paving the way for the industry to evolve thinking on the role of egg quality in treatment plans.”
His team presented their scientific findings at last year’s American Society of Reproductive Medicine conference in New Orleans, confirming the ability of VIOLET™ to predict fertilisation, blastocyst and live birth outcomes from oocyte images taken within the lab.
Other IVI RMA clinics under the GINEFIV, GINEMED and GENERA brands have been using VIOLET™ and MAGENTA™ in their scientific research for the past year and a half, assessing the role of AI in evaluating donor egg quality, enhancing transparency for recipients, and optimising donor egg screening.
“We were early believers in the importance of oocyte quality with respect to reproductive success,” said Dr Danilo Cimadomo, director of innovation in embryology at IVI RMA Italia.
“Future Fertility’s AI tools hold potential for improving our research projects by bringing objectivity into our efforts to better understand egg donor cycles.”
The progression of this enduring partnership from experimental roots to commercial adoption is indicative of the growing affirmation of Future Fertility’s technology worldwide.
Rafael Gonzalez, head of global sales and commercial strategy at Future Fertility, commented: “Our commercial traction has been remarkable across the countries we operate in.
“This new partnership with IVI RMA Global is the culmination of our long-time collaboration and is now empowering patients globally with more precise insights into their fertility treatment options.”
Light exercise and less sitting may reduce pregnant women’s risk of serious blood pressure complications, according to a new study.
Researchers have proposed a daily activity and sleep guide that they say was linked to a nearly 30 per cent lower risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.
The suggested pattern includes fewer than eight hours of sedentary time, at least seven hours of light physical activity, around 22 minutes of more intense activity and nearly nine hours of sleep.
The University of Iowa-led study examined the daily behaviours of 470 pregnant women across all stages of pregnancy.
Participants wore monitors that measured physical activity over 24-hour periods and recorded how long they spent asleep.
Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy include chronic high blood pressure, gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia.
Gestational hypertension is high blood pressure that develops during pregnancy, while pre-eclampsia is a potentially serious condition involving high blood pressure and signs that organs may be affected.
Sedentary behaviour means being mostly inactive, such as sitting or lying down.
Light physical activity can include casual walking, moving around the home or standing.
Moderate to vigorous activity includes movement such as brisk walking, where breathing and heart rate increase.
Kara Whitaker, associate professor in the department of health, sport, and human physiology at Iowa and corresponding author of the study, said: “We are identifying the optimal composition of movement behaviours across the day associated with the lowest risk of developing HDP and the most improved health outcomes.
“This blueprint holds for each and every trimester of pregnancy.”
Study participants were enrolled at sites in Iowa City, Pittsburgh and Morgantown, West Virginia.
The women wore activity and sleep monitors for at least one week during each trimester of pregnancy.
Four in five participants were non-Hispanic white and nearly a quarter lived in rural areas.
The data showed a steep rise in risk among pregnant women who were sedentary for more than 10 hours a day.
Women who increased light physical activity to at least four hours a day reduced their risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy to 15 per cent from 30 per cent.
Whitaker said: “Just moving around more seems to have significant health benefits.
“And I think it also may be a more feasible target for women who are pregnant who are not exercising regularly.”
The researchers said they were surprised that longer durations of moderate to vigorous physical activity did not appear to provide additional benefit.
Sleep beyond a certain duration also did not appear to bring major further benefits.
Whitaker said: “Through this study, we are providing evidence that reducing sedentary behaviour and engaging in light physical activity are important, and maybe more important, when it comes to pregnancy and health.”
The findings may be relevant beyond pregnancy because clinical research has shown that women who develop hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are more than twice as likely to develop heart disease later in life.
Cardiovascular disease includes conditions affecting the heart and blood vessels, such as heart disease and stroke.
Whitaker said: “We know that cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women, and if we can intervene in pregnancy and prevent women from developing a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy, we are putting them on a better trajectory, away from cardiovascular disease and toward more optimal cardiovascular health.”
The study was published online on June 10.
A second study, published online on May 27, looked more closely at the ratio and type of sedentary behaviour and light physical activity linked to a lower risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.
Whitaker is a lead co-author on that study.
Co-authors in the June 10 study include Alex Crisp, Jaemyung Kim, Karina Smith, Donna Santillan, Mark Santillan and Bridget Zimmerman, from Iowa; Jacob Gallagher, from Iowa State University; Melissa Jones, from Oakland University in Michigan; Bethany Barone Gibbs, Katrina Wilhite, Alexis Thrower and Iqra Sheikh, from West Virginia University; and Sabera Rahman, Janet Catov, Christopher Kline and Maisa Feghali, from the University of Pittsburgh.
The National Institutes of Health, the University of Iowa Institute for Clinical and Translational Science, the University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute and the West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute funded the research.
We are excited to reveal the winners of the third annual Femtech World Awards.
The winners were announced at a virtual event this afternoon attended by shortlisted companies, along with sponsors and judges.
The event welcomed guests from the UK, Europe, Asia, Africa and North America.
Thank you to all 174 entries, as well as the sponsors for making the event possible.
See you in 2027!
Femtech World Awards 2026 Winners
Winner:
Shortlisted:
IVI RMA x Juno Genetics
Natural Cycles
Winner:
Highly commended:
U-Ploid
Shortlisted:
Hello Inside
Winner:
WISE HF, led by Prof. Mary Ryder
Highly commended:
Cardiac College for Women
Shortlisted:
Hyvelle Ferguson-Davis
CognitiveCare
Winner:
Highly commended:
Youterus
Shortlisted:
ŌURA
Winner:
Shortlisted:
LeanShield by ParrotPal Group
Perigen
Winner:
Shortlisted:
Body Moody
Looop
Winner:
Shortlisted:
Owning Your Menopause
Womeno
Winner:
Shortlisted:
The Blue Box
Celbrea
Winner:
Shortlisted:
HealCycle
Mor
Winner:
Shortlisted:
HRC Fertility
Mira
Pregnant women’s expectations about postpartum sleep may predict sleep quality after birth, outweighing prior sleep and psychiatric history, a study suggests.
The findings suggest attitudes and beliefs about sleep during pregnancy could be a modifiable risk factor for postpartum sleep concerns.
They also indicate that, among women expecting the poorest sleep, higher postpartum anxiety may further worsen sleep quality.
Sammy Dhaliwal, lead author is clinical health psychologist and research fellow in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Dhaliwal said: “Most pregnant women in our sample anticipated poor postpartum sleep before it occurred, and it was striking that those expectations predicted worse sleep outcomes even after accounting for factors such as prior sleep disorders, psychiatric history, and number of previous births.
“This suggests that attitudes and beliefs about sleep during pregnancy may represent a modifiable target for early intervention before postpartum sleep problems emerge.”
Sleep disturbance affects an estimated 60 to 80 per cent of postpartum women and is linked to a higher risk of depression and anxiety.
Researchers said it is often regarded as an expected part of life after childbirth rather than a health issue that may be addressed earlier.
The study enrolled 432 pregnant women at about 24 weeks of gestation, meaning around 24 weeks into pregnancy.
Participants completed measures of their expectations about postpartum sleep, current sleep quality using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and mood using validated depression and anxiety scales.
Assessments were repeated at six, 12 and 24 weeks postpartum.
A subset of 49 women also wore wrist actigraphy devices at six to eight weeks postpartum.
Actigraphy uses a wearable device, similar to a watch, to estimate sleep and wake patterns based on movement.
The results showed that 70 per cent of pregnant women, or 301 of 432 participants, expected poor sleep in the postpartum period.
Researchers found that predicted sleep disruption during pregnancy was a significant predictor of postpartum sleep concerns.
Among first-time pregnant women without prior health concerns, those who expected greater sleep disturbance had significantly more disrupted sleep after birth, measured by both actigraphy and self-report.
Among women who expected the worst sleep quality, higher postpartum anxiety significantly worsened both measured sleep and self-reported sleep, independent of anxiety levels during pregnancy.
Dhaliwal said the findings point to two possible areas for intervention: addressing sleep-related beliefs during pregnancy and treating postpartum anxiety.
Dhaliwal said: “Postpartum sleep disruption is often treated only after problems develop, but our findings suggest there may be an opportunity to intervene earlier during pregnancy.
“Addressing sleep-related beliefs and postpartum anxiety during prenatal and postpartum care may help improve sleep and emotional well-being in new mothers.”
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