An improved mobile phone app will help identify women who need special treatments at the right time and reduce emotional and financial burden on families and the NHS.
An improved mobile phone app will help identify women who need special treatments at the right time and reduce emotional and financial burden on families and the NHS.
A team of researchers led by Professors Andrew Shennan and Rachel Tribe, from the Department of Women & Children’s Health, King’s, supported by Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity, the National Institute for Health Research and Tommy’s have created a user-friendly mobile phone application, QUiPP v2, that will allow doctors to quickly calculate a woman’s individual risk of preterm birth. This will help them to make sure women who need special treatments get them at the right time, but it also helps them to reassure women when their risk is low.
When babies are born early, before 37 weeks of pregnancy, they are more likely to die, or have physical, developmental and emotional problems. This can result in a huge emotional and financial burden for families and substantial cost for the NHS and care services.
Some women are known to be more likely to have their babies early, and some have symptoms of labour too early in pregnancy. If identified, these women can be given extra monitoring and/or special treatments that aim to prevent early delivery and ensure the infants have the best chance of surviving without long-term problems.
Read more at King's College London
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