Shift to digital in maternity care: improving patient safety

The common theme of this session is how safety and quality in maternity services can be enhanced by putting the mother at the centre of her care. The Perinatal Institute will introduce a new, cloud-based information system that replaces their national handheld pregnancy notes and features risk alerts and prompts, offline use and full mother access. They will also present how a digital, individually personalised electronic system to monitor fetal growth reduces stillbirths and other adverse pregnancy outcomes.  Speakers in this session will also share efforts to address health inequalities and reduce risk, as well as improve experiences, using digital technologies. Recent MBRRACE-UK reports highlight that Black and Asian women face significantly higher risks in maternity services. Communication barriers can contribute to an increase in complications, readmissions and disparities in maternal mortality. Meanwhile, work conducted in the North West highlighted a number of recommendations to enable technology in neonatal care.