Development of fetal monitoring device connecting smartphone and teaching materials for developing countries

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K15918
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Lifelong developmental nursing
• Research Institution: Wakayama Medical University (2017-2018); Hokkaido University (2016)
• Principal Investigator: Fujita Wakako 和歌山県立医科大学, 保健看護学部, 講師 (10732753)
• Research Collaborator: Yokohama Kunihiko
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 胎児心拍モニタリング / 発展途上国 / 分娩モニタリング

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We made an experimental fetal heart monitoring machine using a microphone in collaboration with the company and conducted a performance evaluation to fifty pregnant women. We compared the quality of auscultation among three type of fetal heart monitoring machine such as Pinard stethoscope, Ultrasound Doppler and Microphone. The advantage of the　Microphone was that the sound became loud even in the early term of pregnancy. However, there were some cases which degraded sound quality due to distortion or noise. Further more, the shape of the experimental device using a microphone was a small box type that must be attached with one hand. This made it difficult to search the best point of fetal heart rate by palpation using both hands. In order to overcome these demerits, we need more consideration for setting an superior impedance-matched microphone,signal processing mechanism or improving the shape of the device.

Free Research Field

助産学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

周産期死亡率の高い発展途上国のモニタリングの質を向上するために、安価なマイクロフォンを使用した聴診器の開発を試み、臨床試験を行った。妊婦を対象に実際に聴診を行ったことで、様々な種類の聴診のメリット、デメリットについて検討することができた。しかしながら、低コストで、かつ質の高い機器を製作する目標には至らなかった。現在、BLE通信機能やインターネットクラウドを通してデータを送受信できるタイプの分娩監視装置等、IoTの技術を生かした最新のモニタリング機器が開発されている。それらの技術的発展を、発展途上国の臨床現場の課題解決にどう結びつけていくことができるか、引き続き検討していきたい。