Text messaging service soothes pregnancy fears

Text messages are making life easier for pregnant women with diabetes, thanks to one hospital's innovative use of technology.

Diabetes during pregnancy can be a worry for expectant mothers but those attending Letterkenny General Hospital have reassurance literally at their fingertips.

They are being encouraged to interact with the hospital's diabetic team via mobile phone.

As medical staff around the State are encouraged to embrace information technology's power to improve patient care, the Letterkenny initiative demonstrates how a simple text message can alert staff to any change in a patient's condition.

Pregnant women are just one vulnerable group with diabetes who can text their up-to-date blood sugar levels from the comfort of their own homes to a specialist nurse at the hospital.

Careful monitoring of blood sugar levels is crucial during pregnancy to avoid complications for mother and baby. The patients use a home monitoring system to take the vital blood results which they then relay by text to the hospital for analysis at a central location at the hospital's diabetic centre.

Specialist staff can immediately determine whether intervention is required.

As well as giving reassurance to the pregnant women who know that they are being monitored on a continuing basis, it means that they are saved the inconvenience of unnecessary trips to the hospital. Care can be managed at home, where previously the expectant mother may have had to be hospitalised.

Diabetic clinical nurse specialist Kathleen Crerand, who works on the frontline at Letterkenny General Hospital, told the National Nursing Informatics Conference, attended by over 300 nurses and midwives, that this initiative could also be an important tool in helping adolescents who develop diabetes.

Adolescents are often reluctant to attend diabetic clinics but diabetic specialists who interact with teenagers through text messaging are likely to find it is a language most teens understand.

Assisting adolescent diabetics to manage their condition is the ultimate objective and staff are happy if interaction between teenagers and the diabetic team remotely through technology keeps them healthy.

The HSE West's nursing and midwifery planning and development unit organised the recent conference to highlight the importance of using information technology to enhance patient care.

A spokeswoman said the Letterkenny project "allows patients to remain in their own home while giving them the confidence of knowing there is medical back-up available".