A wearable system to track vital signs communicated from the mother to the fetus

Technol Health Care. 2024;32(1):423-439. doi: 10.3233/THC-230587.

Abstract

Background: The monitoring of fetal heart rate (FHR) before intrapartum has been crucial in modern obstetrics. FHR has been used for about 300 years to determine fetal status, leading to the development of monitoring devices to prevent fetal death during gestation. While medical devices like fetal electrocardiograms exist for disease detection, their size and cost limit individual use.

Objective: To address cardiovascular issues during pregnancy, a mobile system is developed to display heart rates and blood pressure on mobile devices. The system is generated from a medical device with Bluetooth communication, supplementing traditional monitoring.

Method: The study focuses on creating a mobile system that connects to mobile operating systems, enhancing treatment, diagnosis, and patient monitoring. The mobile system displays cardiovascular data obtained from the medical device.

Results: The results are expected to have an immediate impact on cases where abnormal measurement parameters of the monitoring system occur during pregnancy. The use of mobile systems or applications on smartphones is seen as beneficial in distributing processing and census of embedded health systems.

Conclusion: The study highlights the potential benefits of mobile systems in distributing processing for health systems, particularly in addressing cardiovascular problems during pregnancy. The creation of a mobile system for displaying cardiovascular data could significantly improve monitoring and early detection.

Keywords: Mobile health; fetal heart rate; parameters measurement; wireless communication interfaces.

MeSH terms

  • Female
  • Fetus
  • Heart Rate, Fetal / physiology
  • Humans
  • Monitoring, Physiologic
  • Mothers*
  • Pregnancy
  • Wearable Electronic Devices*