Broadband Innovation Fund
Virtual Services - Foetal Monitoring Case Study |
Virtual foetal monitoring keeps specialists in the loop |
| New technology is allowing obstetricians in Warrnambool to monitor a woman's labour in real time from their consulting rooms or even from home. Being able to monitor an 'at risk' pregnancy remotely may have reduced the amount of time obstetrician Dr Chris Beaton spends at a patient’s bedside but it certainly hasn’t affected his standard of care. |
| What it does |
| The state-of-the-art system gives him an online connection to medical equipment that keeps track of the foetal heart rate, the mothers heart rate, and the rate of contractions during labour. "The image is like that on a normal cardiograph except it’s got three lines on it instead of one," explained Dr Beaton. Known as a 'trace', he said it was the interplay between these elements that gave a good indication of how a labour was progressing and allowed him to provide appropriate advice and react quickly – even if he wasn’t in the hospital. Dr Beaton, who is head of obstetrics at the Wentworth Women’s Clinic at St John of God Hospital in Warrnambool, said labour was the most stressful time for an unborn baby because the uterus was contracting and blood flow to the placenta was not as constant. "If a baby is going to have trouble it’s usually during labour." Although midwives were good at interpreting traces, he said there were times when they needed specialist advice. One of the most common reasons for monitoring a labour is if the mother has high blood pressure. |
| How it works |
| The project uses a converged broadband network to enable medical specialists at a range of SWARH facilities, including St John of God, to treat patients remotely and observe their progress using online hook-ups to medical monitoring equipment and videoconferencing facilities. Dr Beaton connects to the system both from his consulting rooms and via the internet at home. He first uses a password to access the SWARH network and then makes a mobile phone call to an automated security service which identifies him as a user and opens the gateway to the foetal monitoring system. Although Dr Beaton is an advocate of the system he says it’s not perfect. “I have to go through a number of screens before I get to the foetal monitoring page and connection has been difficult from time to time, which is sometimes time consuming and frustrating.” |
| The benefits |
| "I'd say the image I see on my computer is about 90 per cent as good as looking at the actual machine itself," said Dr Beaton. "And it's certainly better than someone trying to describe what the trace looks like over the phone or sending you a blurry fax, which is what we used to do." "I live out of town so I really like virtual monitoring. It means I don’t have to drive back into town unless I really need to be there for one of my patients. The other day I was with a patient until about 2am, then went home and was able to log in and reassure myself everything was fine before I went to bed. In the old days I would have waited at the hospital for another four hours." Virtual foetal monitoring was first introduced at South West Healthcare Warrnambool Hospital in late 2006 as part of the South West Alliance of Rural Health (SWARH) Virtual Services Project (VISP), funded by the Victorian Government agency for information and communication technology, Multimedia Victoria. |
| Future opportunities |
| Dr Beaton sees enormous potential for the technology and looks forward to further improvements. "At the moment we probably use virtual monitoring every second day, often at night, but I think we'll use it even more in the future." Dr Beaton said another advantage of the system was the ability to store information and use it for training purposes afterwards. Although he said nothing could fully replace a face-to-face examination of a patient, virtual foetal monitoring was an exciting new advance. "It's really benefiting patients who are experiencing 'at risk' pregnancies because you can get on to things so quickly. You've got much more accurate information at your fingertips, wherever you are, which allows much more accurate and appropriate responses from the clinician." |
