Having a baby is one of life’s greatest moments. It can also be an overwhelming experience. For expectant mothers, proper care and health during pregnancy and birth will have long-lasting effects on their child’s health.
To ensure the healthy development and security of their developing baby, women see a variety of healthcare professionals on their journey from pre- to post-natal care. During this process, thousands of elements of information are shared between the expectant mother and her healthcare team.
Keeping track of all of the information from pregnancy check-ups, ultrasounds and other tests can be daunting. And despite the growth of digital technology in every other aspect of their lives, many pregnant women are still using the old, paper-based maternity records that have been around for decades.
Busy expectant mothers must carry these cards between healthcare providers and appointments, and these handwritten cards can be hard to read, with healthcare providers often have to re-enter the written information into separate paper or digital systems.
But there is a better way. The CSAM iPana Maternity Card delivers a modern, digital service for managing all of the information during the maternity care process. It enables expectant mothers, hospitals and maternity clinics to electronically collect, store and share important medical information at every stage of pregnancy and beyond.
– The CSAM iPana Maternity Card is an innovative cloud-based platform that makes critical information accessible by all staff in all settings, including expectant mothers, said Minna Hernandez, Registered Nurse, Midwife, and CSAM iPana Product Manager. – It eliminates the need for paper maternity cards, improving the safety, security, and flow of information between all healthcare providers in the pre-natal and post-natal care process.
Born from Clinical Cooperation
For years, many governments across the Nordics have been interested in implementing an electronic maternity card to better manage health information during pregnancy. This interest is motivated by a desire to reduce health risks to mother and baby, particularly during complicated or high-risk births.
Experts believe that using a connected, electronic maternity record would provide healthcare workers with real-time and accurate information used for risk assessment, which would in turn improve the security of mother and baby.
In 2013, with nothing available on the market, the city of Tampere and Tampere University Hospital (TAYS) partnered with Finnish Maternity software company MediWare Oy to create their own electronic medical record – and iPana Maternity was born.
– The MediWare team cooperated closely with maternity care professionals, including doctors and midwives, when developing and testing iPana Maternity, said Hernandez. – The goal was to create a service that would provide value across the entire maternity care treatment chain – from the hospital to community care and primary care to pregnant women.
In 2016, CSAM acquired MediWare Oy, accelerated development, and brought the product to market. Tampere University Hospital was the first in Finland to fully implement the iPana Maternity Card, launching the service to its healthcare professionals and patients in 2017.
Today, the CSAM iPana Maternity Card is the leading electronic pregnancy record in Finland, helping deliver about 16,000 healthy Finnish babies each year, more than a third of all pregnancies in the country.
Delivering a Safe Pregnancy & Birth
The CSAM iPana Maternity Card enables digital collaboration between the hospital, community care and primary care clinics and expectant mothers. This seamless information flow increases the quality and safety of care, allowing healthcare professionals to quickly identify any health issues or risks for complications during pregnancy or birth.
– Electronic maternity records have so much more to offer than paper records, said Hernandez. – Maternity clinics have immediate access to information recorded by the primary healthcare provider or mother, and vice versa. The service also highlights risks or potential problems, which isn’t easy to do with paper records.
For expectant mothers, the electronic maternity card offers greater involvement in the management of their health and treatment. Pregnant women play an active role as the user, provider and owner of the information.
– Pregnant women can now participate more fully in their own healthcare through home measurement and diagnostics, inputting parameters such as blood pressure, blood sugar, or alcohol consumption, said Hernandez. – By empowering expectant mothers to act as the link between healthcare providers, the CSAM iPana Maternity Card provides added value to the existing maternity treatment chain.
For healthcare professionals, the electronic maternity card greatly improves workflow efficiency. Duplicate data entry in the maternity care chain is reduced, and doctors or midwives can access complete information on a woman’s history in real-time.
– The iPana Maternity Card saves valuable time for midwives, allowing them to spend more time with the patient and less time manually inputting data into a patient’s maternity record, said Hernandez. – It also helps them cooperate more closely with mothers, doctors, and maternity wards in delivering a safe and healthy pregnancy and birth for mother and baby.
The Growing Demand for Cloud-Based Technology
As the demand for consumer-driven care continues to rise in the healthcare system as a whole and the maternity care sector specifically, the CSAM iPana Maternity Card is poised to capitalize on this movement.
– One of the great benefits of having a cloud-based system is the ability to improve patient access to health services and information, increasing their ownership of personal health management and data, said Glenn Kenneth Bruun, CSAM’s Chief Strategy Officer. – The secure and scalable technology also enables iPana Maternity to grow with our customers, as well as adapt to any broader changes in the healthcare system over time.
In the meantime, the iPana team is focused on continuous improvement and updating iPana Maternity’s versatility and services to meet the needs of maternity care professionals and their patients. CSAM is also looking forward to expanding iPana’s market share within Finland and exporting this valuable technology to new markets.
– The CSAM iPana Maternity Card is an excellent example of what CSAM does best – developing specialized niche solutions that provide meaningful value to customers, patients and the healthcare system, said Bruun.