Evidence mapPaperPMID 37649028Full record

ReviewBMC medicine2023

Telehealth in antenatal care: recent insights and advances.

Jessica Atkinson, Roxanne Hastie, Susan Walker, Anthea Lindquist, Stephen Tong

Open access · goldAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in BMC medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
29citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
36.0field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

29 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 62 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Trial
  4. Trial
  5. The FemTech revolution: Unlocking the potential of new technology for optimizing pregnancy outcomes in low- and middle-income countries and remote areas.International journal of gynaecology and obstetrics: the official organ of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics · 2026
    Article
  6. Article
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  9. Healthcare delivery in the arctic-telehealth prospects.International journal of circumpolar health · 2025
    Review
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Review
  14. The roles of COVID-19 pandemic exposure and telehealth in prenatal care access for rural and racial minority communities in the United States: A retrospective cohort study.The Journal of rural health : official journal of the American Rural Health Association and the National Rural Health Care Association · 2025
    Article
  15. Article
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  17. Review
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Jessica AtkinsonDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Melbourne, Mercy Hospital for Women, 163 Studley Road, Heidelberg, VIC, 3084, Australia.
Roxanne HastieDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Melbourne, Mercy Hospital for Women, 163 Studley Road, Heidelberg, VIC, 3084, Australia.
Susan WalkerDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Melbourne, Mercy Hospital for Women, 163 Studley Road, Heidelberg, VIC, 3084, Australia.
Anthea Lindquist *Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Melbourne, Mercy Hospital for Women, 163 Studley Road, Heidelberg, VIC, 3084, Australia.
Stephen Tong *Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Melbourne, Mercy Hospital for Women, 163 Studley Road, Heidelberg, VIC, 3084, Australia. stong@unimelb.edu.au.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2319-0586
The University of Melbourne · AUMercy Hospital for Women · AU

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundFor decades, antenatal care in high-resource settings has involved 12-14 face-to-face visits across pregnancy. The COVID-19 pandemic forced many care providers to rapidly embrace telehealth to reduce face-to-face visits. Here we review recent advances in telehealth used to provide antenatal care. MAIN BODY: We conducted a narrative review examining the impact of telehealth on obstetric care. Two broad types of telehealth are used in antenatal care. The first is real-time telehealth, where consultations are done virtually instead of face-to-face. The second is remote monitoring, where in-clinic physical examinations are replaced with at-home alternatives. These can include blood pressure monitoring, fetal heart rate monitoring, and emerging technologies such as tele-ultrasound. Large cohort studies conducted during the pandemic era have shown that telehealth appears not to have increased adverse clinical outcomes for mothers or babies. However, further studies may be required to confidently conclude rare outcomes are unchanged, such as maternal mortality, serious morbidity, or stillbirth. Health economic studies suggest telehealth has the potential to reduce the financial cost of care provision. Telehealth in antenatal care seems to be acceptable to both pregnant women and healthcare providers.

conclusionAdoption of telehealth technologies may improve the antenatal care experience for women and reduce healthcare expenditure without adversely impacting health outcomes for the mother or baby. More studies are warranted to confirm telehealth does not alter the risk of rare outcomes such as maternal or neonatal mortality.

Indexed as

COVID-19TelemedicineFemaleHumansInfantInfant, NewbornLearningPandemicsPregnancyPrenatal CareAmbulatory blood pressure monitoringAntenatal careConsumer satisfactionCost-effectivenessMaternal outcomesNeonatal outcomesObstetricsPregnancyTelehealth

Identifiers

PMID37649028
PMCPMC10470141
OpenAlexW4386284967

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.