Design and implementation of a telehealth platform for prenatal management in rural and remote areas

Abstract

As stated by WHO, around 9.2% of 28 million newborn babies worldwide are stillbirths. Moreover, approximately 358,000 women died in 2008 due to birth complication. Most of these incidents occur in developing countries. Existing telehealth systems are not integrated in rural and remote areas. Midwives in those areas do not get any support by medical specialists during high risk pregnancy situations so that those cases usually end lethal. Therefore, in this study, a new telehealth platform for prenatal management also called as Integrated Remote Prenatal Monitoring is designed and implemented. The system consists of a server, prenatal data assistant and a workstation for an electronic health record. This represents a replacement for the current paper based medical record and teleconsultation. The Integrated Remote Prenatal Monitoring exchanges medical information between midwives in rural areas and doctors or specialists over long distances. In order to collect specific requirements for the system, a study has been performed at the indonesian hospital 'Rumah Sehat Budi Kemuliaan, Jakarta'. Results show a functional and user friendly webbased solution being implemented within the Django framework.