Maternal Fetal Medicine via Telehealth
Women’s Telehealth’s Tanya Mack, interviews the company’s CEO and Medical Director, Dr. C. Anne Patterson, discussing maternal-fetal medicine as a specialty, and how they are now able to capitalize on telemedicine technology to deliver high-risk maternity care to a wider patient population.
Maternal fetal medicine is rare sub-specialty of obstetrics which delivers high risk obstetric care. These
specialists manage complex complications of pregnancy such as: multiple gestations, chronic medical
conditions during pregnancy, gestational diabetes and fetal abnormalities. The CDC and March of Dimes both estimate that in 2015 in the US, approximately 1:10 babies in the US are born prematurely.
GA ranks 50/50 for maternal death and 42/50 for infant mortality. Getting access to maternal fetal medicine services is often difficult as there are only about 1200 MFM physicians in the US and most are not located in rural areas.
Clearly, there is a need for many physicians of different specialties in rural areas and maternal-fetal medicine is one of them. OB practices and hospitals in these areas can engage with Womens Telehealth to be able to help these patients avoid having to spend long travel times in cars to be seen by these needed specialists. This allows them to stay closer to home and receive care in their local community.
But this solution has value for urban practices as well. There are very few maternal-fetal specialists nationwide—only ~20 or so in Georgia. By deploying the Womens Telehealth solution, these city-based groups and hospitals can also provide access to this specialty care for their patients, preventing potential loss of the patient to other facilities/groups in the community that do have maternal-fetal specialists on campus.
Special Guest:
Dr. C. Anne Patterson, CEO/Medical Director, Womens Telehealth