Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Jakarta, Indonesia – Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) today announced an agreement with the Sijunjung Regency in West Sumatra, Indonesia, for the full-scale commercial implementation, Philips’ first globally, of its Mobile Obstetrics Monitoring (MOM) service in the region. This scalable smartphone-based digital health service is designed to identify mothers-to-be who are at high risk of pregnancy-related complications and help reduce maternal mortality rates. Expanding mobile monitoring coverage, it addresses both rural and urban needs. Philips works together with PT. TELKOM, the largest telecommunication provider in Indonesia with a nationwide connectivity infrastructure, to ensure a robust and effective digital solution. The MOM telehealth service is planned to be introduced in other regions in Indonesia, India and Africa later this year.

The obstetrics monitoring solution enables midwives in remote locations to share vital measurements, observational data and mobile ultrasound images with obstetricians and gynecologists in the country’s larger hospitals and collaborate with them for improved decision making during pregnancy.  The service features two mobile phone apps. The first allows midwives to collect vital measurement data - e.g. weight, blood pressure, temperature - and sync it to the MOM web portal. The second lets doctors track this data and review a woman’s progress. Specialists at regional primary care centers can also access the data via a MOM web portal to monitor women’s conditions and identify high-risk pregnancies via a dashboard interface. Training and education are also provided as part of the service.

“Indonesia, with 255 million people living on more than 900 islands, still struggles with one of the highest rates [1] of maternal death in the world partly due to the lack of access to healthcare services,” said Jeroen Tas, CEO Healthcare Informatics, Solutions and Services at Philips. “With the roll-out of our mobile obstetrics monitoring solution in West Sumatra we are helping to give people access to skilled healthcare personnel and the right technology at the right time. It’s a clear example of how digital technologies can facilitate preventative care and have a tremendous impact on the quality of care.”

In a one-year pilot project in collaboration with the Bunda Medical Center in Padang, Indonesia, that preceded today's announcement, Philips' Mobile Obstetrics Monitoring solution increased the early detection of high-risk pregnancies three fold and helped expectant mothers to receive the medical monitoring and treatment they needed for a safe delivery. The pilot had over 650 pregnancies within the program. Not a single woman died from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth through early monitoring and risk stratification.

“We are excited that West Sumatra is the first district in Indonesia to implement Mobile Obstetrics Monitoring,” said Health District Head, Dr. Edwin Suprayogi. “It is a challenge for many mothers in this district to travel from their home to the closest clinic, which means that high risk pregnancies are often not detected at an early stage. With the MOM program, we aim to identify these women much faster so that they get access to the care they need. At the same time, the program will also help us to track the effectiveness of individual healthcare workers so that we can improve their skills and further improve the quality of healthcare.”

The Mobile Obstetrics Monitoring solution is part of Philips’ strategy of providing connected care solutions that span locations and enable more people-focused integrated care, customized to address the local needs. In the U.S., Philips is successfully running Intensive Ambulatory Care (IAC) and Care Coordination programs with Banner Health in Phoenix Arizona and Henry Ford Health System in Michigan to support senior people living with chronic conditions. In the Netherlands, Philips works together with many hospitals to enable connected, integrated care for people living with heart failure, diabetes or respiratory diseases.

The Philips white paper “Mobile Obstetrics Monitoring (MOM) as a model for community-based antenatal care delivery in a low-resource setting” can be downloaded here. Recognizing the impact of MOM Frost & Sullivan recently named Philips Indonesia Telehealth Company of the Year for 2015.

[1] World Health Organization (WHO) data on maternal death shows Indonesia recording 190 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2013, the third lowest results among ASEAN member states, despite Indonesia being the largest ASEAN economy. Specifically in West Sumatra, the maternal mortality rate is as high as 212 deaths per 100,000 live births, based on a survey by Andalas University in 2008 and published in the Health Ministry’s 2012 West Sumatra Health Profile.