When opportunity presents itself, take it.
That mantra is what led Uros Djokovic ’25MSHIAI to join the Serbia-based medtech startup BabyFM after graduating from Bryant’s Master of Science in Healthcare Informatics and AI program.
“I just loved the idea they had and decided to drop everything else,” says Djokovic, the company’s finance lead and data analyst.
BabyFM’s eponymous device is a clinical-grade wearable that monitors infants and patients for fevers (the “FM” stands for “Fever Monitoring”) in real-time. Lightweight and worn on the chest, the tool connects to an app on users’ phones and the nurses’ hospital dashboard — providing them with early detection of potential issues. BabyFM also stores readings from the previous 48 hours, which supplies medical professionals with clearer data for accurate diagnosis and treatment.
When an infant shows signs of illness, caregivers frequently conduct temperature checks — sometimes more than five times a night, Djokovic notes. Those manual checks don’t just take time and disturb babies, but the resulting exhaustion in parents can turn other small tasks into risks — such as not recalling when the last dose of a particular medicine was given or administering an incorrect dosage.
The BabyFM team aims to fix those problems. The company, which launched four years ago, has completed two medical trials and has signed agreements with several local and international hospitals about using their devices. It recently opened its “seed round” (a startup’s first formal round of funding) and anticipates launching sales this spring.
Djokovic notes that the company is also scaling the wearable for adults — specifically targeting those in hospital settings.
“It's a similar device, so why not scale it?” he asks, adding that they’ve also conducted one study for pet monitoring in Belgrade and signed agreements with two USA veterinarian clinics.
Being part of a small startup team means Djokovic’s day-to-day tasks change constantly. Whether he’s managing company finances, working on sales strategy, or traveling abroad to spread the word about BabyFM at conferences and summits, his work environment is always dynamic.
That flexibility can have certain perks, including exposure to opportunity. Two weeks after joining BabyFM, for instance, he and the company’s CTO presented the product at an AI startup pitch competition — and won first place.
As with many startups, long hours come with the job, but that grind is familiar to Djokovic, who balanced academics and athletics while at Bryant.
“Being a student-athlete gave me discipline and taught me resilience because, for most of my life, my swim practices started at 5:30 in the morning and, afterward, I'd go to school, work in Bryant’s International Graduate Office, weight lift and swim again, and then go to Bible study,” says Djokovic, an international student born in Serbia who also held positions as a part-time teaching assistant and as an analyst who leveraged data analytics to assess enrollment patterns.
From the academic support he received from faculty to the personal connections he made with staff, coaches, and peers, it was the relationships that Djokovic built at Bryant that helped him adjust to New England and find success. He began working with Healthcare Informatics and AI Program Director Nafees Qamar, Ph.D., and served as a machine learning researcher under his mentorship. Together, the pair created a specialized AI model that could spot early signs of lung cancer with 86 percent accuracy. Their model was also able to detect small, early-stage lung nodules by adapting to the directional properties of lung tissue in CT imaging.
Though they concluded their research last year, Djokovic remains in touch with Qamar, and the two are looking to present their research at conferences and other venues.
Reflecting on why he chose to study Healthcare Informatics and AI, Djokovic shares that it seemed like a unique field that could give him a competitive advantage.
“In the end, that proved to be true” he says.