UNAIR NEWS – Two lecturers from Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) developed an application for calculating fetal movements called Fetal Diary on Movement and Activity Counting (TIMANG App). They are lecturers at the Faculty of Dental Medicine, UNAIR, Dr. Taufan Bramantoro, drg., M.Kes. as well as a lecturer at Faculty of Medicine UNAIR Manggala Pasca Wardhana, dr., Sp.OG (K).
Launched in January 2021, this application is intended to observe the activity of babies in the womb in the third trimester or 28 weeks. This observation is done by counting the fetal movements every day. In Obstetrics, the calculation of the frequency of fetal movement can indeed be done by everyone and can be a method to determine the health condition of the fetus.
Unfortunately, pregnant women or their families often do not know or are confused about how to practice it. drg. Taufan as one of the initiators of the application said that the fact of the high rate of infant mortality begins with a decrease in fetal movement is their concern in developing this application.
“The data shows that every year there are 3.2 million deaths in the womb. Approximately 55 percent of these deaths began with a decrease in the frequency of fetal movements that were also felt by the mother. Unfortunately, many mothers and families do not yet understand this early detection, “explained the Head of UNAIR Dental Health Master Study Program.
But behind all that, TIMANG App also has a personal meaning for Taufan. “I lost my second child when my wife was 9 months pregnant. It happened suddenly and we didn’t even have time to detect it, ”he said.
This then made drg. Taufan collaborate with dr. Manggala, an obgyn doctor who used to treat his wife, to develop TIMANG App. Both of them developed this application with personal funds and donated it. So, users of this application are free to access it on the Play Store without any advertisements or special requirements.
In the process, drg. Taufan and dr. Manggala is supported by Kelola.net, Ruang Praktek, and the Indonesian Health Collaboration and Innovation Institute (IHCI). Even though they had faced challenges in dealing with errors and maintaining application stability, the two UNAIR lecturers together with two developers successfully completed the calculation and recommendation system in the TIMANG App.
Using TIMANG App is very easy only through a simple interface. User experience pleasing the eye with excellent features such as reminders, data charts, daily reports, history, to articles related to pregnancy are plus points of this application.
Within four months, this application has attracted 100 users with positive feedback. Now, both of them only hope that TIMANG App will be increasingly recognized by the public and realize their aspirations to contribute to suppressing the rate of infant mortality in the womb.
“Sudden fetal death is a tragedy for mothers, families, and the team of doctors who handle it. Through the TIMANG App, we hope that pregnant women out there can be helped to calculate fetal movements and early detection of all possibilities, “he said.
UNAIR as the best university in Indonesia is committed to encouraging the academic community to contribute to the wider community. (*)
Author: Intang Arifia
Editor: Binti Q. Masruroh
