Philips to implement new telehealth service in Indonesia to help reduce maternal mortality

Royal Philips announced an agreement with the Sijunjung Regency in West Sumatra, Indonesia, for the full-scale commercial implementation, Philips’ first globally, of its Mobile Obstetrics Monitoring (MOM) service in the region.

This scalable smartphone-based digital health service is designed to identify mothers-to-be who are at high risk of pregnancy-related complications and help reduce maternal mortality rates. Expanding mobile monitoring coverage, it addresses both rural and urban needs. Philips works together with PT. TELKOM, the largest telecommunication provider in Indonesia with a nationwide connectivity infrastructure, to ensure a robust and effective digital solution. The MOM telehealth service is planned to be introduced in other regions in Indonesia, India and Africa later this year.

The obstetrics monitoring solution enables midwives in remote locations to share vital measurements, observational data and mobile ultrasound images with obstetricians and gynecologists in the country’s larger hospitals and collaborate with them for improved decision making during pregnancy.

The service features two mobile phone apps. The first allows midwives to collect vital measurement data - e.g. weight, blood pressure, temperature - and sync it to the MOM web portal. The second lets doctors track this data and review a woman’s progress. Specialists at regional primary care centers can also access the data via a MOM web portal to monitor women’s conditions and identify high-risk pregnancies via a dashboard interface. Training and education are also provided as part of the service.

"We are excited that West Sumatra is the first district in Indonesia to implement Mobile Obstetrics Monitoring," said Health District Head, Dr. Edwin Suprayogi. "It is a challenge for many mothers in this district to travel from their home to the closest clinic, which means that high risk pregnancies are often not detected at an early stage. With the MOM program, we aim to identify these women much faster so that they get access to the care they need. At the same time, the program will also help us to track the effectiveness of individual healthcare workers so that we can improve their skills and further improve the quality of healthcare."

The Mobile Obstetrics Monitoring solution is part of Philips’ strategy of providing connected care solutions that span locations and enable more people-focused integrated care, customized to address the local needs.