Text/Yangcheng Evening News all-media reporter Chen Hui correspondent Peng Fuxiang
Photo/Courtesy of respondents
With wearables and mobile phone software, you can monitor blood pressure, blood sugar, and fetal heart rate monitoring at any time at home! Today (April 26) morning, a research project to apply new telemedicine technology to pregnancy care in underdeveloped areas of China was launched at the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University. The project aims to explore a new model of maternal care to reduce the incidence of maternal comorbidities in underdeveloped areas and to ensure the safety of expectant mothers and fetuses. Professor Kuang Ming and Professor Wang Zilian, Vice President of Zhongshan First Hospital, attended the launching ceremony of the project.
The launching ceremony is linked online and offline
Remote "maternity check-up" with wearable devices
Chen Haitian, the person in charge of the project and deputy chief physician of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Zhongshan First Hospital, introduced that the project plans to carry out a multi-center, parallel and randomized controlled intervention trial in three representative county-level hospitals in Guangdong (Fengkai County People's Hospital, Yangchun City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Zijin County People's Hospital) and its subordinate primary medical and health institutions, exploring wearable devices (weight, blood pressure, blood glucose, fetal heart rate monitoring) and mobile phone software (diet, Exercise) of the new telemedicine technology of the establishment of a model of pregnancy care for the effect of improving pregnancy outcomes, in particular to reduce the incidence of maternal comorbidities.
Chen Haitian introduced that this project originated from her one-year experience of medical technology and management assistance in Fengkai County People's Hospital in Zhaoqing City when she participated in the Guangdong Provincial Group Assistance in 2020. During her work in the hospital, she had seen a pregnant woman who was 35 weeks pregnant, found unexplained intrauterine stillbirth, complained of irregular obstetric examination, and felt that the fetal movement was reduced 3 days ago, but because the place where she lived was far from the hospital, the traffic was inconvenient, and it was delayed for 3 days to come to the hospital, thus delaying the precious rescue opportunity. While lamenting the case, she further pondered the question of whether there was a more convenient and appropriate model of pregnancy care to help pregnant women in these underdeveloped areas and improve the quality of pregnancy care.
Wearable devices
One fetal heart rate monitor in three health centers
It is already common to do regular obstetric examinations in large cities, but it is difficult to standardize and promote pregnancy health care in underdeveloped areas, which is related to the "congenital deficiencies" in these areas. The first is the lack of medical hardware and equipment. Taking fetal heart rate monitoring as an example, after 28 weeks of pregnancy, if a pregnant woman finds abnormal fetal movements, fetal heart rate monitoring is the most basic and accurate means of examination; but remote areas are far away from county-level hospitals, let alone tertiary hospitals. The health center may be the closest medical institution they can choose, but because the fetal monitor is worth a lot (30,000-55,000 yuan for single-machine domestic production and 70,000-80,000 yuan for imports), not every health center is equipped with this equipment. In Fengkai County, for example, only one-third of health centers are equipped with a fetal heart rate monitor, and pregnant women in other health centers can only go to nearby health centers or county-level hospitals for examination.
In addition, the inconvenience of transportation and medical treatment is also the reason why some pregnant women fail to have regular obstetric examinations.
With the introduction of the two-child and three-child policies, the number of elderly pregnant women has increased, and the possibility of pregnancy complications in elderly pregnant women is higher, including gestational diabetes, gestational hypertension, intrauterine fetal death, etc., which means that the demand for medical treatment is also higher. However, the low level of education of grass-roots medical personnel, the large gap in knowledge structure and background, and the lack of ability to accept and digest new knowledge lead to the mismatch between the diagnosis and treatment level of grass-roots medical staff and the management complexity of elderly pregnant women, and increase the incidence of adverse pregnancy outcomes.
Telemedicine helps to improve primary care
Chen Haitian introduced that the project has formed a paradigm for the training of grass-roots medical personnel under the new telemedicine technology by establishing a case database, recording online courses, and combining with offline training, and cultivating a group of grass-roots medical personnel who know how to use new telemedicine technology to strengthen pregnancy health care.
For the development of underdeveloped areas, this model innovation can significantly improve the diagnosis and treatment effect and the level of diagnosis and treatment of grass-roots doctors, and bring more advanced technology to the grass-roots level. (For more news, please pay attention to Yangcheng Pie pai.ycwb.com)
Source | Yangcheng Evening News Yangcheng Pie
Editor-in-charge | Lin Qingqing