title: Wireless fetal heart rate monitoring in inpatient full-term pregnant women: testing functionality and acceptability.
abstract: We tested functionality and acceptability of a wireless fetal monitoring prototype technology in pregnant women in an inpatient labor unit in the United States. Women with full-term singleton pregnancies and no evidence of active labor were asked to wear the prototype technology for 30 minutes. We assessed functionality by evaluating the ability to successfully monitor the fetal heartbeat for 30 minutes, transmit this data to Cloud storage and view the data on a web portal. Three obstetricians also rated fetal cardiotocographs on ease of readability. We assessed acceptability by administering closed and open-ended questions on perceived utility and likeability to pregnant women and clinicians interacting with the prototype technology. Thirty-two women were enrolled, 28 of whom (87.5%) successfully completed 30 minutes of fetal monitoring including transmission of cardiotocographs to the web portal. Four sessions though completed, were not successfully uploaded to the Cloud storage. Six non-study clinicians interacted with the prototype technology. The primary technical problem observed was a delay in data transmission between the prototype and the web portal, which ranged from 2 to 209 minutes. Delays were ascribed to Wi-Fi connectivity problems. Recorded cardiotocographs received a mean score of 4.2/5 (± 1.0) on ease of readability with an interclass correlation of 0.81(95%CI 0.45, 0.96). Both pregnant women and clinicians found the prototype technology likable (81.3% and 66.7% respectively), useful (96.9% and 66.7% respectively), and would either use it again or recommend its use to another pregnant woman (77.4% and 66.7% respectively). In this pilot study we found that this wireless fetal monitoring prototype technology has potential for use in a United States inpatient setting but would benefit from some technology changes. We found it to be acceptable to both pregnant women and clinicians. Further research is needed to assess feasibility of using this technology in busy inpatient settings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Adeline A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Boatin
authors.affiliation: Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Blair
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wylie
authors.affiliation: Division of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Ilona
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Goldfarb
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Azevedo
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pittel
authors.affiliation: Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Global Health, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Courtney
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.affiliation: Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Global Health, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Haberer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015148:Cardiotocography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006340:Heart Rate, Fetal; D006801:Humans; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011247:Pregnancy; D059015:Wireless Technology; D055815:Young Adult