Atlanta OB/GYN office merges technology and medicine to expand maternity care - The Atlanta Journal Constitution

Launched arsenic a aviator programme past year, Virtual Obstetrics accommodates a hybrid schedule, with the archetypal appointments — until 20 weeks — successful person, past transitioning into virtual appointments until the past period of pregnancy.

The virtual OB programme comes with a humor unit cuff, standard and a HeraBEAT fetal bosom complaint doppler, arsenic good arsenic a personalized app that helps you way your gestation and offers acquisition articles by the Mayo Clinic. Through this program, patients are required to upload their information erstwhile a week.

Local ma Stephanie Berrier participated successful the programme and gave commencement to her 2nd kid successful May.

“I ne'er felt similar I was uncared for. In fact, if anything, due to the fact that I was uploading information astir my wellness each azygous week, you’re being monitored really much closely,” Berrier told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “They’re getting much information points astir your wellness and tracking your humor unit and fetal bosom complaint and truthful distant adjacent much frequently. So, for me, it conscionable acceptable my life. It was precise casual to do.”

The virtual programme allows seamless appointments without the hassle of traffic, scheduling to permission enactment aboriginal and waiting successful your doctor’s office. However, if mothers wanted to conscionable in-person for a antecedently scheduled virtual appointment, the programme easy allows for this change.

“Generally, patients are scheduled for a 15-minute sojourn successful the office. So, that includes getting checked in, getting enactment successful a room, weights and measurements and past we person a fewer minutes wherever they tin inquire maine questions,” Dr. Jill Purdie, OB/GYN and aesculapian manager astatine Northside Women’s Specialists, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I deliberation the vantage of this for those telehealth visits is they’ve already done each of that astatine home. And so, erstwhile they person a 15-minute telehealth sojourn they truly person 15 minutes with me, and they tin inquire each their questions and everything that they privation answered”

Anytime a parent takes their captious signs, that information is uploaded to their doctor’s dashboard to beryllium monitored successful existent time. Additionally, moms tin grounds their child’s heartbeat and nonstop it to their loved ones done text, and they tin perceive to their child’s heartbeat erstwhile they want. This unsocial diagnostic was Berrier’s favourite portion of the program.

“I liked being capable to perceive my baby’s heartbeat myself astatine location whenever I wanted to. So, I had to bash it astatine slightest weekly, but I could bash it much frequently,” Berrier said. “I had a household subordinate who was sick, and I wasn’t capable to spot them, but I could nonstop them (a signaling of my child’s heartbeat) and they could perceive to it.”

The virtual OB programme doesn’t halt astatine birth, either. Mothers are switched to a postpartum attraction plan, wherever they illustration their vitals and affectional wellness aft giving birth. Through this, their doc tin way if their patients whitethorn beryllium affected by postpartum depression.

“If (patients) person a debased temper score, the exertion automatically prompts them to bash a ceremonial slump screen,” Purdie said. “So embedded wrong the exertion is an approved slump screening, and past that volition alert maine if it comes implicit arsenic a dashboard an abnormal score. And past we scope retired to those patients and person them travel in.”

While this was Berrier’s 2nd pregnancy, this was her archetypal acquisition with the virtual OB program. She said she felt she knew much intimately what was happening to her and her child. If fixed the choice, she said she would spell done the programme again and recommends it to different moms-to-be.

“If your doc offers (this program), you tin ever commencement it and, if you conscionable consciousness similar it’s not moving for you, you tin ever spell backmost into the mean routine,” Berrier said. “And adjacent though you’re successful a virtual program, I ever felt that I had modular appointments. I had good, dedicated clip with my doctors to beryllium capable to inquire them questions. So, I deliberation conscionable knowing that there’s flexibility is conscionable a bully improvement of attraction for large moms.”

Currently, the programme astatine Northside Women’s Specialist enrolls low-risk women who are different steadfast individuals and who nave nary important aesculapian issues. In the adjacent fewer years, Purdie said she hopes this programme expands beyond their practice.

“I would anticipation that this is thing that you tin connection to each large women … due to the fact that it seems similar arsenic we determination guardant arsenic a full community, exertion is going to beryllium portion of that,” Purdie said.

“Ideally, we would emotion to beryllium capable to scope radical who person constricted access,” she added. “Currently, our aviator is not doing that. It’s lone patients that are already coming to our practice, but we would emotion to beryllium capable to usage this exertion to scope areas wherever radical possibly don’t person the entree oregon the quality to travel to the doc connected a regular basis.”

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