The deployment is supported by a $5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to provide 1,000 healthcare workers -- predominantly midwives -- in Sub-Saharan Africa with the ultrasound devices, according to the vendor.

Butterfly said it provided 50 practitioners with a Butterfly device as well as obstetric ultrasound training at a launch event held on 20 September at Kenyatta University in Nairobi. A total of 500 practitioners will be trained by the end of the year by the Global Ultrasound Institute, enabling over 50 facilities in rural underserved communities to gain ultrasound capabilities to help address maternal health challenges, according to Butterfly.