Ciconia Medical advances new standard for labor assessment with imaging and AI technology

Ciconia Medical advances new standard for labor assessment with imaging and AI technology

• September 21, 2026

Via the Rochester Business Journal

Childbirth is one of the most common and highest-stakes events in healthcare, yet one of its most important assessments still depends largely on what a clinician can feel with two fingers during a vaginal exam. These exams help guide decisions about admission, discharge, labor progression, interventions, and escalation of care, but the findings can vary between clinicians and leave little objective documentation that can be reviewed, compared, or tracked over time.

For patients, repeated vaginal exams can also be painful, invasive, and stressful during an already vulnerable experience. For hospitals and care teams, uncertainty can contribute to repeated exams, workflow inefficiencies, infection risk, and avoidable high costs.

Solving these critical challenges became both a personal and professional mission for Ciconia Medical's founder and CEO Roni Cantor-Balan.

"As a mother of three and a biomedical engineer with lasers and optics expertise of nearly 20 years, I saw firsthand how consequential labor assessment can be and how limited the current tools are," Cantor-Balan said. "As I spoke with hospitals, clinicians, and women, it became clear that this is not only a comfort issue. It is a measurement problem, a clinical risk problem, and a financial burden problem."

Ciconia Medical is developing ILARA (Intelligent Labor Real-Time Assessment) to change that. The company's AI-enabled imaging device is designed to provide care teams with a real-time, objective view of labor anatomy, turning measurements that are currently estimated by touch into visual information to support better-informed decisions, reduce unnecessary repeat exams, and improve patient experience and outcomes.

Unlike traditional imaging systems, which often require specialized operators and equipment, ILARA is being developed as an affordable bedside solution that integrates into existing obstetric workflows.

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