Abstract:
The burden of preeclampsia has been a major concern worldwide both in developed and developing countries,
making its prevention and management a major concern. Although motherhood is a fulfilling experience in
society, it is connected to ill-health in some women, leading to maternal morbidity and mortality. The United
Nations' Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 aims to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than
70 per 100,000 live births. These deaths are caused by among other things, the emergence of conditions such as
preeclampsia during pregnancy. Therefore, this study sought to implement a 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure
monitoring solution for preeclampsia management, using a smartwatch in conjunction with a mobile and cloudbased
application. Upon blood pressure readings from the expectant mother, an alert is sent to the assigned
caregiver in order to initiate quick action. The researchers adopted a rapid prototyping approach in the implementation
of the 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring system. An experimental design was adopted
in the study to evaluate whether the system functionalities performed as expected. The system, which was
evaluated in the context of a sample of 30 expectant mothers from two level 5 hospitals in Kenya, has been able
to read blood pressure from expectant mothers' smartwatches. The real-time data is then sent to the caregivers’
smartphone, as well as an alert. The solution has shown great potential for actual adoption in healthcare systems
in developing countries, given its simplicity and affordability.
