Dr. Neetika Ashwani, MPH ’22

Dr. Neetika Ashwani, MPH ’22: Bonding Every Mother and Child, One Heartbeat at a Time

Newborn intensive care units are stressful for both premature babies and new parents. Hanging wires, staff shortage, and a lack of skin-to-skin contact hours make it difficult for parents to spend time with their babies. This can lead to compromised growth, extended hospital stays, higher costs, and increased morbidity and mortality rates. As a pediatrician who worked extensively with preterm babies and their caretakers for eight years in Hyderabad, India, Dr. Neetika Ashwani, MPH ’22 observed the impact of these difficulties on newborns and their families first-hand and knew that more could be done.

It was this experience that motivated Dr. Ashwani to pursue a career in public health—during which she worked for UNICEF, IQVIA, and the World Bank—and ultimately encouraged her to obtain an MPH degree at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health to better understand global health and merge her on-field experience with a formal education.

Dr. Ashwani graduated in 2022 and in that same year, she launched her startup KRIASH to improve the health outcomes of premature babies through skin-to-skin contact by creating a wireless, non-invasive monitoring device called Mama Cuddles.

Mama Cuddles helps to empower newborns and their families to thrive by allowing more cuddle time without the worry of monitoring wires. Instead, real time data is collected from the device and easily observed by healthcare providers. The data includes contact hours and important vitals that can be displayed on the bedside dashboard, app, and central nursing station, allowing any unstable measures to be flagged and immediate action to be taken. Without the stress and uncertainty of their newborn’s condition, Mama Cuddles empowers families to hold their baby close to their chest with confidence.

KRIASH recently won third place at Columbia Engineering's Millard Chan '99 Technology Challenge for applied, solution-focused, technological innovation. And, last fall, Dr. Ashwani competed with 10 other teams from across Columbia University at the Fast Pitch Competition organized by the Department of Health Policy and Management for the opportunity to win startup funding through the inaugural Asha Saxena Prize for Entrepreneurship. She was also the finalist of the Columbia-CareOne Healthcare All-Stars Challenge, a Columbia Venture Competition for the next generation of Columbia entrepreneurs.

KRIASH also hosts a podcast called “Bump, Birth, and Beyond: The First 1000 Days of Life,” which provides a space for open and honest conversations about the time between pregnancy and a child’s second birthday, the most critical time for cognitive and physical development. Podcast listeners can submit questions to be answered by medical professionals around the world, and new episodes are released weekly.

In the spirit of Columbia Mailman’s mission to build a healthy and just world, KRIASH is improving outcomes of every life they touch. To learn more about KRIASH and their non-invasive monitoring device, Mama Cuddles, you may visit their website.