Leveraging Technology to Enhance Maternal Care: Bridging Critical Gaps
During my 15 years in the women’s health field, I have observed the relentless dedication of labor and delivery (L&D) physicians and providers. Despite their commitment, they increasingly face challenges posed by market forces and inadequate systems. To address these challenges, we must embrace new technologies that can enhance care and close the dangerous gaps that human limitations create.
Recognizing dramatic issues in care, such as rapidly deteriorating obstetric emergencies, is usually straightforward. Healthcare teams are adept at quickly mobilizing to protect both mother and child in such scenarios. However, most adverse birth outcomes do not unfold in this manner.
The Subtle Nature of Maternal Care Risks
More often, risks in maternal care increase gradually and can be easily overlooked. Subtle changes in fetal heart rate, such as decreasing variability or increasing decelerations, might seem benign in isolation. Collectively, however, they pose a significant threat to the fetus. These warning signs can be missed initially and only become apparent when it’s nearly too late. Technology must play a crucial role in detecting these small yet accumulating warning signs—tasks that humans struggle to manage over time.
Advancements in Maternal Care Technology
The dynamics of maternal care across the U.S. are in critical condition. Many labor and delivery wards are closing, limiting access to healthcare. Experienced nurses are being replaced, and turnover is on the rise. Additionally, patients are often older and have more comorbidities. Longstanding inequalities place women of color at higher risk, adding to the pressures at the bedside.
Technologies that produce fragmented or isolated data can increase ambiguity and risk for physicians, forcing them to synthesize information across patients and remain hypervigilant to slow, incremental changes. In already tense environments, this can increase cognitive load and variability instead of reducing it.
The Role of AI in Maternal Care
Certain technologies, especially those leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), can be instrumental in processing data to highlight meaningful patterns and prioritize patients who need attention. Systems designed to do so can reduce cognitive load, support consistent decision-making, and reduce risk. The effective use of technology in maternal care lies not in the mere presence of technology but in tools that provide situational awareness, context, and clarity.
AI can also address unintentional variability in care. Concerns about AI bias, especially against women of color, persist. However, AI models based on supervised learning could mitigate this bias by excluding racial or ethnic factors in their training. Systems trained on curated data can focus on objective clinical patterns, supporting consistent risk detection across diverse patient populations.
Enhancing Clinical Decision-Making with AI
AI can improve adherence to clinical standards by reducing variability in interpretation. Tasks like assessing fetal heart rate patterns are subjective, and AI can help prevent different interpretations that lead to inconsistent care. By applying consistent criteria to all patients, algorithmic tools can foster a consistent understanding of patient conditions, ensuring timely intervention and adherence to standards of care.
Bridging the Experience Gap
AI can help bridge the experience gap in labor and delivery units. Less experienced nurses may struggle to develop pattern recognition and confidence without repetition. Decision support tools can provide consistent assessments of clinical patterns, increasing situational awareness and supporting timely escalation when necessary. The goal is to enhance clinical judgment, ensuring consistent patient care regardless of staff composition or environment.
In resource-limited settings globally, where experienced clinicians may be scarce, the ability to consistently interpret clinical patterns can significantly impact health outcomes, highlighting the importance of decision support tools.
Scaling Care Virtually
These tools also expand the reach of experienced clinical talent. Through algorithmic stratification, health systems can direct expertise to patients who need it most, even when specialized support is unavailable. Virtual care models enable centralized teams to monitor patients across multiple units, enhancing situational awareness and documentation consistency.
Carefully implemented, these approaches improve care consistency and reduce variability, key factors in enhancing quality and reducing system-level risk.
Improving maternal safety involves more than adding data or new devices. It requires building systems that help physicians identify risks early and act confidently. Technology must provide clarity, not just more data, and integrate seamlessly into care. In stressed environments, the right tools bring clarity and become standards of care. Health systems cannot afford to fall out of sync in maternal health or beyond.
Photo: damircudic, Getty Images
Matthew Sappern has been Perigen’s Chief Executive Officer since 2012, leading the company through a period of significant growth, product expansion, and global impact. Under his leadership, the organization has expanded adoption in major healthcare systems, advanced a portfolio of FDA-approved clinical software, and established partnerships focused on improving birth safety and equity worldwide.
Matthew brings nearly 30 years of experience building and operating regulated health technology companies. Prior to his current position, he held senior leadership roles at Allscripts, Eclipsys, and WebMD, where he was responsible for product development, commercialization, and operations. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Emory University, serves on numerous boards, and is Executive in Residence at the Yale University Venture Lab.
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