A smart ring that tracks heart rate, sleep and activity will be tested on pregnant women in Abu Dhabi to see whether changes in their bodies could help doctors detect the risk of premature birth earlier.
The 24-month Project Cradle, launched on Wednesday by the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi (DoH) and health technology company Oura, will examine whether continuous biometric data can reveal warning signs of spontaneous preterm labour before it happens.
Researchers will follow women with elevated-risk pregnancies from early pregnancy through delivery, combining data collected by the Oura Ring with clinical and genomic information to investigate whether changes in individual women's physiology could provide a reliable signal ahead of premature labour.
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Premature birth, defined as delivery before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy, affects roughly one in 10 births worldwide. Identifying the risk earlier could give doctors more time to consider interventions to support a baby's development, including treatments to improve lung and brain health, or arrange a transfer to a hospital with specialist neonatal care.
The study will initially involve Corniche Hospital and Mediclinic Airport Road, with recruitment expected to begin in the coming weeks. Results are expected to be published in 2028.
What will the ring track?
The Oura Ring continuously measures physiological indicators including heart rate, heart rate variability, sleep and activity. Researchers will examine these measurements over time and compare them with clinical outcomes to determine whether a consistent pattern emerges before spontaneous preterm labour.
Population-level research has suggested that heart rate and heart rate variability can change in the weeks before delivery. Project Cradle will test whether such changes can be detected reliably in individual women, and whether they occur early enough to be clinically useful.
A key question is whether researchers can establish a threshold that would prompt medical teams to assess a woman or take action. The study is intended to investigate that possibility, rather than introduce a new clinical warning system immediately.
The research will operate under ethics approval, informed consent and DoH's data governance and Trusted Research Environment framework. Participants will continue to receive standard clinical care.
Oura's team of more than 50 in-house doctors and PhDs will lead the wearable-data science and analysis.
From research to healthcare
Announced by Abu Dhabi's Department of Health Undersecretary Dr Noura Khamis Al Ghaithi and Oura chief executive Tom Hale at the Abu Dhabi Future Health Summit, Project CRADLE is the first research initiative under a longer-term partnership between the two organisations announced in May 2026.
The partnership is intended to explore how continuous health monitoring can support preventive care. Project Cradle is the first of three planned pilots, with a broader focus on women's health and cardiometabolic health.
Al Ghaithi said the project would help build the evidence needed to identify warning signs earlier and enable more timely and personalised care.
Hale said the partnership brought together continuous physiological monitoring and clinical expertise to explore how wearable data could contribute to better health outcomes.
Any wider integration of the technology into Abu Dhabi's healthcare system would depend on the study's findings and regulatory approval.