Enhanced Pregnancy Care – Realising the benefits of digitalisation in pregnancy care

Pregnancy is a unique opportunity to optimise health outcomes for both mother and baby, not only for the duration of pregnancy but also across their lifespans. Antenatal care, the care of a pregnant woman, affords the ability to improve health literacy, education for healthy pregnancies and lifestyles, as well as provide directed care to optimise health outcomes for both mother and child. While the knowledge of how to achieve this is increasingly available, the provision of it through existing antenatal care systems, which have been maintained relatively unchanged since the 1920’s, is limited. Digital interventions in healthcare have rapidly increased over recent years with many showing potential to enhance traditional forms of healthcare delivery. Their integration into healthcare has been enhanced in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and improved funding models to support their use. This research aims to further enhance pregnancy care delivery through the integration of digital technologies to improve clinical outcomes while achieving more evidence-based, personalised, and woman-centred pregnancy care. Broadly, this will be through: 1) Understanding women’s perspectives on pregnancy care, including which aspects are most important, and which digital health advances would be valued most 2) Developing and implementing evidence-based digital health approaches for improving risk prediction, risk factor modification, and enhanced pregnancy care utilising clinical outcome data and patient reported metrics to improve the health of pregnant women. 3) Assessing the effectiveness of digital health interventions to improve pregnancy outcomes, healthcare utilisation, financial sustainability, and consumer experience. This project will be undertaken within a world-leading team of both local and international experts.