PREMOM I

Problem statement – Worldwide, two to three percent of all pregnant women develop preeclampsia. This is characterized by a high blood pressure and proteins in the urine after 20 weeks of gestation. Until today, there is no treatment for pre-eclampsia, the only cure is the delivery of the placenta. Due to the need for a preterm delivery of the placenta and thereby the baby, there is more need for the newborn to get hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care. This means higher mortality and morbidity rates for the newborns and lots of stress for the new parents.

During pregnancy, the women with symptoms of pre-eclampsia will be admitted to the maternal intensive care (MIC). This hospitalization has a serious emotional, economical social impact on the women and their relatives. Also pregnant women with a high risk for developing pre-eclampsia but without clinical symptoms can be admitted to the MIC. This to control the vital parameters of both the mother and the fetus and to ensure bedrest for the mother. Nevertheless, these actions can be performed without hospitalization, in the home environment of the pregnant women. But then, there is the lack of a midwife who will control her daily health.

Project goal – Developing a home-based telemonitoring service for pregnant women with a high risk for developing pre-eclampsia. This allows the pregnant women to stay at home, in her safe familiar setting and her health will be monitored at a distance by a midwife and a gynaecologist.

Study design – Telemonitoring by medical devices like a blood pressure monitor, a weight scale and an activity tracker. The data will be transmitted by Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to an online platform. The midwife in the hospital will daily review and evaluate this data in consultation with the gyneacologist. When necessary, the pregnant women will be contacted.

Keywords – Telemonitoring, clinical call center, preeclampsia, high-risk pregnancies.

News

• PreMom will be part of the LimPrOn project. The project is based on the results of the preeclampsia research done by Hasselt University, led by prof. dr. Wilfried Gyselaers. His team demonstrated a clear association between the changes of blood vessels during pregnancy and the onset of preeclampsia. Based on those results, the team developed a number of safe, non-invasive, detection techniques for profiling the risk on preeclampsia. Those techniques create the possibility of early screening pregnant women and intensive follow-up through telemonitoring and preeclampsia consultation @ Hospital East-Limburg  and Hasselt University.
• PreMom was mentioned @ De Standaard: De dokter schrijft een app voor.