Telemedicine solutions, a window of opportunity to bridge the gap in maternal and neonatal health services

Abstract

A narrative review was conducted to examine the increased use of telemedicine solutions during COVID-19 pandemic and to discuss the benefits of using telemedicine techniques in the reduction of maternal and neonatal mortalities. Telemedicine has evolved significantly in the past couple of years since the outbreak of COVID-19. One of the areas where telemedicine can save lives is though remote connection with a higher-level facility or more skilled service providers that can deal with emergency obstetric care. Telemedicine use in emergency obstetric care can significantly reduce maternal and neonatal mortalities and morbidities in remote and underserved areas, and in facilities that have poor trained service providers. The advantages of applying telemedicine solutions in complicated child births are to overcome long distances, geographic isolation, lack of services, and lack of skilled personnel. It’s cost-effective, and more important saves lives. Disadvantages are mainly related to technological infrastructure, availability of an Internet, hardware, financial incentives to on-call recipients of the cases, and their commitment. The main functionalities of the telemedicine solution to respond to emergency and complicated childbirth cases are proposed to include video conference between health professionals in underserved and specialized service delivery points, sensor’s data for electrocardiogram, cardiotocography, ultrasound, and patient data recording. It needs to come with a mobile application to be used by specialists to enable them respond to and manage the emergencies.