Pregnancy Safety In Maternity Wards

In collaboration with the Danish tech company Corti.ai, Hvidovre and Herlev Hospital are initiating a pilot using artificial intelligence to ensure proper care for pregnant women and mothers who call the Maternity Wards in Denmark.

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When childbirth begins, the first thing you do is to call the local maternity ward. It is also through calls to the maternity wards that women are guided during labor, or are advised to rush to the hospital in case of a serious complication. It is the midwife's responsibility to assess whether a woman should be invited in for further examination, or if the call can be managed over the phone.

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This project aims to create greater insights into the complications that can occur in connection with pregnancy and childbirth, and to test how artificial intelligence can help improve patient outcomes for the many pregnant women calling the two hospitals.

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By comparing thousands of previous calls to the maternity wards with the information that is given in a new call, Corti is developing an algorithm that can help identify what risks the woman is facing. This knowledge can then be used by the midwife to support the decision-making process during the pregnancy period and labor.

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“As a midwife, you have to deal with a lot of information, along with making a number of important decisions. When a pregnant woman calls us, it is crucial that we ask the right questions so we can provide the correct guidance. We expect that the visits to the maternity wards will improve when we combine the midwives' professional knowledge and experience with artificial intelligence ", says Helene Hvidman, chief physician at the Gynecology and Obstetrics Department at Hvidovre Hospital, and the initial driver behind the project.

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Using AI to ensure optimal care for pregnant women

Over the last ten years, several midwives and obstetricians have noticed a trend: There are more pregnant women with chronic and complex conditions that can expose both the woman and the baby to greater risk during pregnancy and at birth.

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"Telephone consultations can be quite difficult since you cannot physically see or examine the woman. With this project, we hope artificial intelligence can support us in uncovering which risk profiles are at stake during a given call. As a result, we hope to avoid unnecessary visits and potential complications caused by an incorrect or delayed examination," says senior physician Lene Huusom, from the Department of Women's Diseases, Pregnancy and Births at Herlev Hospital. Lene has been involved in the project from the beginning and is part of the steering group.

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Birth or pregnancy complications that are not detected can have serious consequences, while unnecessary examinations put extra pressure on the maternity wards and can cause concerns among the pregnant women.

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"As midwives, we are trained to be able to spot where attention is needed, and use our knowledge and experience when the women call in. With this project, we see an opportunity to get an additional tool that can contribute to ensuring that everyone receives both quick, relevant advice and care, and that we can support the midwives in their decisions”, says Charlotte Bækgaard, coordinating midwife at Herlev Hospital.
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Improving the training and onboarding process for the midwives

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Besides ensuring the right advice is given, Corti can help make it easier to carry out onboarding and training for the midwives who answer the phone now and in the future, says midwife Monica Ladekarl from Hvidovre Hospital:

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"To be good at telephone consultations, you must be experienced, have good communication skills, solid clinical knowledge, be able to give advice and make clinical decisions and have good telephone etiquette. With the project, the midwives will get a virtual assistant that can support them in making sure each woman gets the right support for a safe pregnancy and a good birth experience," she says.

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The maternity wards at Hvidovre and Herlev hospitals receive over 4,000 calls per month. The first project milestone is identifying the current call landscape for both departments, something that is already in progress.
                               

Project details:

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The project consists of developing a solution that, with the help of artificial intelligence, can understand the phone conversations in real time and support the staff during the conversation, so that the right visitation is offered. Hereby, every midwife in the visitation will get a virtual assistant who supports with the initial assessment of the patient.

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The project is initiated as a collaboration between Hvidovre Hospital, Herlev Hospital and the Danish Health Tech company Corti, Danish Regions, KL and the Danish Digitization Agency have selected this project as one of their “AI signature projects”.

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The project is inspired by a solution developed by Corti in collaboration with Copenhagen Emergency Medical Service (CEMS) to support detection of cardiac arrest – a solution that won a Digitization Award in 2020.

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Read the article on www.berlingske.dk

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