GW researchers found in a study last month that using remote patient monitoring during pregnancy may lead to fewer fatalities in patients and their infants.
The study, co-authored by Lauren Rosenfeld, a medical resident at GW Hospital, suggested that the more frequently pregnant patients utilized RPM technologies, like blood pressure monitors, the more likely they were to detect preeclampsia, or high blood pressure, during the prenatal and postnatal periods. Preeclampsia is one of the leading causes of mortality in pregnancies, and Rosenfeld said she hopes the study’s findings reach wider audiences and encourage more patients to use RPM technologies to feel reassured in monitoring their health.
“Remote monitoring for reassurance is so much of what medicine is in general, like making a patient feel like they understand their body and what’s going on with their body,” Rosenfeld said.
RPM is a telehealth service that uses digital devices, like pulse oximeters — which detect oxygen levels in blood — and thermometers, to collect health data from patients in their homes and automatically transmit it to health care providers for review and analysis, according to the American Medical Association. The study employed the Babyscripts digital health platform, which allows patients to remotely track gestational weight gain and blood pressure as well as receive scheduled education about pregnancy symptoms.
Researchers reviewed the medical charts of 823 pregnant patients who used Babyscripts to track health conditions like preeclampsia during their pregnancies, according to the study. The study states that researchers also tracked patients’ engagement with Babyscripts, defined by the percentage of weeks during pregnancy in which the patient submitted at least one remote blood pressure measurement.
“We went through each of the studies to identify the populations, the key points, the summaries and kind of the takeaways, so that we can figure out as a group, kind of where the field is going from here,” Rosenfeld said.
After reviewing records and engagement with Babyscripts, researchers identified a pattern in the data that suggested higher engagement may improve preeclampsia detection.
Studies have shown that the use of RPM technologies has skyrocketed since the COVID-19 pandemic, when telehealth services became more popularized, and patients and health care providers have continued to use it as a more convenient way to track health developments for patients with chronic conditions in real time. The service must be administered by a physician who determines the service is medically necessary and is broadly covered by Medicare.
A 2025 study by the American Heart Association showed that in the last five years, hospitals offering RPM services increased 40.3 percent.
Rosenfeld said, alongside the high risks preeclampsia poses for mothers, the condition can also affect infants through nutrient deficiencies that can lead to fetal growth restrictions, bleeding and still and pre-term births.
“It’s a term that we measure or that we use to understand one of the negative consequences of pregnancy,” Rosenfeld said.
Rosenfeld said she hopes the study will continue to inform and reach women from around the world to detect as many cases of preeclampsia as possible, which was her motivation throughout the research.
“It’s the idea of our services to reach populations that wouldn’t otherwise have medicine or otherwise have access to health care,” Rosenfeld said.
Experts in maternal health and life sciences said the study highlights the significance of the technology in lowering maternal mortality and the need for health care providers to emphasize patient engagement during pregnancy.
Sarwat Naz, a licensing manager at GW’s Technology Commercialization Office, with a specialty in life sciences, said RPM technologies are helpful, but their success depends on the level of usage and engagement from patients.
“This suggests that these kind of digital health tools are not just diagnostic tools but can also reflect patient motivation and also health literacy,” Naz said.
Naz said she had experience with another kind of digital health monitoring system, Text-To-Quit, where GW researchers found that this technology, a text-message-based smoking cessation program, helped smokers to quit by providing them information and a resource to reach out to to assist them in stopping smoking.
Naz said while the study is useful for the detection of the disease and vitals, the technologies will not work without the application drive from patients to use them. She said continuous pushes from health care providers for women to continue to use RPM throughout their time after pregnancies could fix this, especially if they have multiple pregnancies, and could broaden the technology’s reach.
“I feel that just having the tool is not enough. I think we need to provide, we have to lay the groundwork for precision maternal health with tailored intervention,” Naz said.
Liz Borkowski, a researcher at the GW Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health, said with how serious the consequences of preeclampsia are, it is crucial to spot it early on, rather than waiting until it is detrimental to the mother and child. She said RPM could help with earlier detection.
“Especially as you know, if people are coming into pregnancy with higher blood pressure, like we know in terms of the population, higher blood pressure is a concern,” Borkowski. “So it is common enough that it makes sense to really devote resources towards figuring out how to catch it sooner.”
Borkowski said treatments of preeclampsia can sometimes be dietary alterations, like increased water and protein intake. However, depending on how high the blood pressure is and how early it is recognized, doctors will prescribe medication treatments, she said.
“If those things don’t work, or if the blood pressure is really high, a doctor might prescribe anti-hypertension medication, and in the most serious cases, they might just say, ‘Alright, it’s time to deliver the baby,’” Borkowski said.
