Harnessing digital technology in maternity services

Following the National Maternity Review, the Maternity Transformation Programme was set up as an NHS programme with nine workstreams aiming to make wide-ranging improvements. The Maternity Transformation Programme seeks to achieve the vision set out in Better Births by bringing organisations together to lead and implement the change. 

NHS Digital's 'Harnessing Digital Technology’ workstream sits within the Maternity Transformation Programme.

The Harnessing Digital Technology workstream provides the digital elements of the Better Births vision. Better Births recommends that to improve quality of care, learning and productivity, the NHS needs to make it much easier for health professionals to collect and share data with each other and with their patients. The new model of care requires a significant change in the use and access of information to support continuity of care throughout the ante-natal, intrapartum and post-natal period.

The Secretary of State refers to safety as the golden thread running through the Maternity Transformation Programme. Making better use of data, improving women's experiences of care, and ensuring the maternity workforce has regular training will all make a significant contribution to safer maternity services.

During 2018/19 we are focused on delivering four main projects: electronic maternity records, electronic personal health records, digital maturity and a digital toolset to help offer trusted and reliable sources of maternity information for women.

1. Electronic maternity records

The first step of this project is to create a professionally agreed standard for maternity records. This will enable all maternity clinical systems to consistently capture information and ‘speak the same language’.  

The second step is interoperability development, which will allow maternity record information sharing between local maternity systems, professionals and with women. This will ensure the electronic maternity records are accessible at the point of care. It will support continuity of care and safer care for women and their babies. Electronic maternity records that can be shared will reduce the amount of paper used across the service.

2. Electronic personal health record

An electronic personal health record (ePHR) is a digital space that enables people to take greater control of their health and care by accessing a range of information. For example, an ePHR could include:

• health records
• appointments
• prescriptions
• test results

ePHRs enable people to add information and share it with others involved in their care. For example, women may choose to:

• communicate with care professionals through secure messaging
• share regular information about their health, such as updates to disease activity scores

• capture and share images or videos, record appointments, capture birth plan information and receive information relevant to the stage of their pregnancy

• complete pre-consultation questionnaires to help care providers understand women’s recent history and make the best use of time in appointments

ePHR outcomes

We aim to provide as many women as possible with the choice to access their electronic maternity record and benefit from the improvements it brings.

The benefits for women include:

• access to their personal maternity record online, giving them greater visibility, control and understanding of their health and related information
• access to trusted information about pregnancy with increased ownership and improved outcomes for safety and maternity experience
• fewer barriers between the health care professionals and the woman - it also has the potential to include critical reminders around screening, immunisations and appointments during pregnancy
• a reduced risk of missing important clinical information

The benefits for healthcare professionals include:

• a reduced administrative burden
• an enhanced relationship with women with fewer, but more focused, queries
• interaction via more convenient and efficient channels
• safer, better care and better value

The benefits for provider organisations include:

• reducing the cost to organisations of capturing and sharing information
• improving data quality
• service improvements and greater efficiency by supporting new ways of working and new models of care

3. Digital maturity

We aim to benefit women and healthcare professionals by encouraging appropriate adoption and uptake of technology. We are assessing the current digital capability across maternity services and providing support, guidance and tools to help maternity services increase their digital maturity.

4. A digital toolset

We aim to improve personalisation and choice for women by offering access to unbiased, evidence based and locally specific information. This includes information about people’s circumstances, choices available and their own personal care plans.

What we're doing to achieve this:

1. We are working with the Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB) and other stakeholders to establish a standard for maternity records. This includes crucial internal dependencies across the Personalised Health and Care 2020 domains, particularly domains A and D. 
2. We’ve launched a Maternity Digital Maturity Assessment of all maternity services to establish a baseline and identify areas of best practice, and areas where improvements in digital maturity are needed.
3. We have looked into creating a maternity digital toolset for women, alongside the NHS Choices team.
4. Our experts are working closely with midwives in a clinically led expert reference group. We’re talking to stakeholders such as the Royal College of Midwives and Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to ensure the expertise of clinicians is fed into this important work.
5. We are collaborating with other Maternity Transformation Programme workstreams to help achieve their objectives in improving local services, safety and women's experiences of maternity care.      

The programme aims to: 

• maximise the quality time spent between women and healthcare professionals
• improve communication between women and maternity services
• increase the choice and personalisation of care for women and their families
• improve safety for women and babies
• improve women's experience of care

All 44 of the local maternity systems (LMSs) from across England are invited to provide representation at the LMS Digital Leaders Forum. This group has an important role in supporting our projects and contributing requirements from professional stakeholders across the country.

The Digital Midwives Expert Reference Group gathers expert advice from midwives and clinicians. The group meets four times a year to discuss the digital challenges and successes they experience, providing valuable input into the work of the Digital Maternity Programme.