University wins BT award for pioneering telemedicine initiative

Left to right: Keith Morgan of BT Learning, Dr Paul Johnson, Jonathan Darby, and Bridget Knursheed (Project Manager)

Pregnant women will soon be able to monitor the health of their unborn child at home, find out the latest pregnancy and childcare information, and receive career and education advice on a TV or computer screen, thanks to a pilot online project undertaken by the University. The Combined Telemedicine and Learning Environment for Young Mothers project, developed by the Department for Continuing Education and the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, has been awarded £100,000 by the BT Higher Education Awards 1999–2000. Oxford has received the largest of the five awards to universities across the UK to support schemes using new technologies to promote access to learning. Combining the latest in technology-based education with advances in telemedicine, the system will provide young mothers with pre and postnatal health education and training in the convenience of their own homes. Around 20 mothers-to-be will be taking part in a pilot project. Health monitoring equipment and a computer linked to the Internet via BT Home Highway will be installed in the patient's house. The woman will use the state-of-the-art equipment to send information about her health, such as her heart rate and blood pressure, down the line where it can be monitored by a professional healthcare team. This data is then presented to the woman in an educational context that enables her to understand it and modify her behaviour to improve her state of health. The mother will also be trained to use the Internet to learn more about her condition, and to take part in online discussions with healthcare professionals and other pregnant women. Mr Jonathan Darby, Director of Technology-Assisted Lifelong Learning (TALL) at the Department for Continuing Education, said: `This is an exciting opportunity to bring education to the place where it is most needed —the home, and to make it relevant to each woman by basing the education on her own health data.' Dr Paul Johnson, of the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, said: `I am very excited about the practical application of telemedicine during pregnancy, particularly for young first time mothers or those experiencing any complications. If this study is successful it could be a forerunner for wider implementation in community telehealth support of a range of conditions, including heart disease and diabetes.'