Background and objective

Regular health checkups are important for mothers and newborns to detect health problems at an early stage; however, this is often difficult in resource-limited settings. Therefore, the portable health clinic (PHC) for maternal and child health (MCH), a telemedicine health checkup system, was introduced as an intervention study in a rural area in Bangladesh. The aim of this research project was to report findings that we had observed at a mid-point of the intervention period.

Methods

This was an intervention study conducted in Shariatpur, Bangladesh. The study population included pregnant/parturient women aged 15–49 years and their newborns. With the help of the newly created PHC for MCH, health workers, with a set of sensor devices in an attaché case, visited mothers and newborns at home to examine their health status. Their health status was triaged into four categories using a data management application, and in cases of affected or emergent health status, they were placed on remote video consultation with a doctor.

Results

In total, 94 women were included in the PHC for MCH intervention. The rate of participants who received antenatal care at least four times or postnatal care at least once increased (from 29% to 51%, and from 27% to 78%, respectively) compared with before introducing PHC for MCH. Using the PHC for MCH, we detected health problems in pregnant/parturient women; a relatively high percentage had anemia (45–54%) and/or abnormal pulse rate (20–40%). Moreover, after introducing the PHC for MCH, more than 40% of women who received multiple antenatal care or postnatal care checkups improved their health status.

Conclusions

The PHC for MCH could be an effective system to improve the health of mothers and newborns by increasing the availability of care. In the future, this system is expected to be used as a primary resource for maternity healthcare, not only in rural areas but also in other social environments.

中文翻译：

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为孟加拉国农村的母亲和新生儿提供可持续护理的便携式健康诊所

背景和目的

定期健康检查对于母亲和新生儿及早发现健康问题很重要；然而，这在资源有限的环境中通常很困难。因此，在孟加拉国的农村地区引入了远程医疗健康检查系统——便携式母婴健康诊所（PHC）作为干预研究。该研究项目的目的是报告我们在干预期的中点观察到的结果。

方法

这是在孟加拉国 Shariatpur 进行的一项干预研究。研究人群包括 15-49 岁的孕妇/产妇及其新生儿。在新设立的 MCH 初级卫生保健中心的帮助下，卫生工作者带着一套装在公文包中的传感器设备，走访家中的母亲和新生儿，检查他们的健康状况。使用数据管理应用程序将他们的健康状况分为四类，在受影响或紧急的健康状况的情况下，他们会被安排与医生进行远程视频咨询。

结果

共有 94 名妇女被纳入 PHC 以进行 MCH 干预。与为 MCH 引入 PHC 之前相比，接受至少四次产前护理或至少一次产后护理的参与者比例增加（分别从 29% 到 51% 和从 27% 到 78%）。使用 MCH 的 PHC，我们检测到孕妇/产妇的健康问题；相对较高的比例有贫血 (45-54%) 和/或异常脉率 (20-40%)。此外，在为妇幼保健引入初级保健后，接受多次产前检查或产后检查的妇女中，超过40%的妇女的健康状况有所改善。

结论

MCH 的 PHC 可以成为一个有效的系统，通过增加护理的可获得性来改善母亲和新生儿的健康。未来，该系统有望被用作孕产妇保健的主要资源，不仅在农村地区，而且在其他社会环境中。