Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically altered the landscape in which
healthcare is delivered. Prior to 2019, telemedicine was pitched as the
next frontier. However, little was understood on how it would become
integrated into modern healthcare delivery. Over the past two years,
patients have become increasingly accepting of receiving medical care
remotely.1This represents an exciting social shift that offers enormous
opportunities for the improvement of Maternal and Fetal Medicine.
The use of fetal electrocardiogram (ECG) derived from maternal abdominal
ECG as a biomarker of fetal well-being offers a prime entry point for
the implementation of remote monitoring and telemedicine for this
underserved patient population. ECG patterns are currently being
investigated as early biomarkers of poor fetal and postnatal
development.2,3Studies indicate that in-home stimuli like maternal stress can
negatively impact lifelong neurodevelopmental
trajectories.4Current practice is only beginning to use ECG as a source of biomarkers
intrapartum and not at all antepartum. This leaves minimal time for
intervention and correction of fetal development. Applying this
technology to the in-home setting will expand the intervention window
for providers, improving pregnancy outcomes. Mothers would continuously
wear ECG devices monitoring both maternal and fetal ECG and its
derivatives, such as heart rate (HR) and HR variability metrics,
providing instant on-site and remote access to the health of the
mother-fetus dyad. The first step in the implementation of such
practices is gauging how perceptive prospective and existing mothers
would be to the integration of wearable ECG devices in their daily
lives.