Does a certain patient need extra supervision, even though, on the surface nothing seems to indicate complications?
Might the mother or baby develop irregular heart rhythms?
The doctors and midwives rely on monitors, as well as their vast experience and educated judgement. Now they have an additional tool. AI—a million information points comparing a specific patient with millions of women who have given birth.
AI now occupies a space on the wall monitors and can alert the staff that they may need backup staff and/or an operating room.
Program co-director Prof. Michal Lipschuetz points to her computer monitor to show a practical application of this technology for just such a case.
A 24-year-old woman, let’s call her Miriam, is pregnant for the first time. Miriam came to Hadassah Hospital when her contractions began. From the moment she entered, Hadassah Medical Organization (HMO) staff began comparing Miriam’s particular parameters with data from millions of other pregnant women — thanks to AI.
Miriam’s medical history and previous examinations indicated that she was likely to need a Caesarian section. In the hospital, her contractions increased in intensity, and the information from her monitor as well as the fetal heart beat confirmed that a C-section would be imminent.
On an overhead monitor that listed all the women in the delivery room, Miriam’s name was marked to show that special attention was needed. The midwives, doctors and nurses prepared for possible surgery.
But then, Miriam’s cervix dilated, and the fetal heart rate improved. The AI system beeped an important change. Now, it showed, a woman with Miriam’s markers had a 75 percent chance of having a regular vaginal birth.
That was important information and was reassuring to her medical team, who also judged a that regular delivery was possible.
Central monitors capable of showing AI analyses are already in place at the Rady Mother and Child Center on Mount Scopus. In addition to the heart rates of moms and in-utero babies, AI data will also be available to help the staff make decisions. Senior midwives will be able to call in help for unplanned surgeries and unpredictable conditions.
Program co-director and head of the Mount Scopus labor and deliver rooms, Dr. Yishai Sompolinsky, revealed the new capabilities to OBGYN staff on both HMO campuses on a January 7 webinar.
The team is currently recruiting 400 prospective moms for the study, to determine how the Ai input impacts decision-making.
“We hope we will make even better choices: who will need an unplanned Cesarean and who can avoid it,” says Lipschuetz. “This is just one component of our whole vision of seeing the delivery ward taking steps to being more AI focused.”
Caesarian rates vary enormously by countries. In Brazil, over fifty percent of births are by C-section. In the US, every third delivery is by C-section. Israel, with the highest birthrate among developed countries, has a low 15-20 percent of C-sections. Will that rate go even lower, as Hadassah physicians capture the power of artificial intelligence AI to make the rate even lower? Time will tell. For sure, AI is a valuable tool for helping the labor and delivery team prepare for the unexpected.
