Development of mHealth applications for pre-eclampsia triage

Abstract

The development of mobile applications for the diagnosis and management of pregnant women with pre-eclampsia is described. These applications are designed for use by community-based health care providers (c-HCPs) in health facilities and during home visits to collect symptoms and perform clinical measurements (including pulse oximeter readings). The clinical data collected in women with pre-eclampsia are used as the inputs to a predictive model providing a risk score for the development of adverse outcomes. Based on this risk, the applications provide recommendations on treatment, referral, and reassessment. c-HCPs can access patient records across multiple visits, using multiple devices that are synchronized using a secure Research Electronic Data Capture server. A unique feature of these applications is the ability to measure oxygen saturation with a pulse oximeter connected to a smartphone (Phone Oximeter). The mobile health application development process, including challenges encountered and solutions are described.