Telehealth: improving maternity services by modern technology

Area of Science:

• Obstetrics and Gynecology
• Digital Health
• Maternal-Fetal Medicine

Background:

• Hypertension in pregnancy, including pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH), affects 10% of pregnancies.
• PIH necessitates frequent blood pressure monitoring per NICE guidelines, straining healthcare resources.
• Current monitoring protocols involve frequent face-to-face appointments, increasing patient and provider burden.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the acceptability, feasibility, and safety of telehealth for home blood pressure monitoring in PIH patients.
• To assess the impact of telehealth on patient experience and healthcare service workload.
• To determine if telehealth can improve compliance with clinical guidelines for PIH management.

Main Methods:

• A 3-phase implementation of 'Florence', a text-based telehealth platform, replaced routine face-to-face appointments.
• Utilized a Plan-Do-Study-Act methodology for progressive refinement of the telehealth intervention.
• Recruited 75 patients over 12 months, substituting approximately 800 in-person visits with remote monitoring.

Main Results:

• Telehealth successfully replaced a significant number of face-to-face appointments.
• Remote monitoring led to improved patient care and satisfaction.
• Achieved enhanced compliance with NICE guidelines for blood pressure monitoring in PIH.

Conclusions:

• Home-based telehealth monitoring is a viable solution for managing hypertension in pregnancy.
• Telehealth can improve the quality of care in maternity services while reducing the burden on NHS resources.
• This approach offers a patient-centered, efficient alternative to traditional monitoring methods.