News
Innovative maternity technology trialled at JHC now being used in war-torn Ukraine
Oct 21, 2022
An innovative approach to remote maternity care successfully trialled at Joondalup Health Campus (JHC) is benefitting patients well beyond Perth’s northern suburbs, with the technology now being used in war-torn Ukraine.
HeraBEAT monitors, developed by Israeli based medical technology company HeraMED, are hand-held devices that measure the unborn baby’s heartbeat with hospital grade precision, sharing the results with JHC maternity staff in real-time via HeraCARE, a remote maternity monitoring platform.
HeraCARE also records the mother’s physical and mental health capturing vitals, including blood pressure, urine, mood, COVID-19 symptoms, vaccination status and more.
The technology features education modules as well as telehealth communication tools and automatic alerts, which immediately notify the patient and medical staff if a measurement falls outside the normal range, providing advice on what to do next.
The technology also has advanced analytic tools assessing patient information and predicting adverse health outcomes, such as preterm delivery, pre-eclampsia, the likelihood of emergency caesarean section and pre or postnatal depression risks.
JHC Director of Obstetrics, Dr Cliff Neppe, said the technology was shaking up maternity care describing it as “the new frontier for maternity services”.
“Having proved the efficacy of this cutting-edge technology in a pilot study last year, JHC has become the first hospital in the world to implement a new hybrid model of care where we are combining face-to-face antenatal consults with telehealth antenatal consults using the new platform,” Dr Neppe said.
“It means that women and their unborn babies can be monitored from the safety and comfort of their homes with the same accuracy and precision as being in hospital, but with half the hospital visits.
“It is incredibly exciting and supports maternity services and health systems around the world, which are faced with challenges including a shortage of maternity professionals, COVID-19, even war, as is the case in Ukraine.”
Dr Neppe said in the past he has been wary of remote monitoring devices, however, his hands on use of HeraBEAT and HeraCARE have confirmed that this technology is both accurate and reliable and more than 90 percent of trial participants said they enjoyed taking the measurements remotely.
“Of course, it is optional and some women may prefer to attend in person, but many are choosing to reduce hospital visits and use this new model,” he said.
Dr Neppe said in his experience women were also more engaged using the new hybrid model of care and that it was ideal for today’s digitally savvy maternity patients.
“Last financial year, JHC delivered about 3,400 babies, and we estimate about 90 per cent of our maternity patients will use this platform moving forward.”