Testing Telediagnostic Obstetric Ultrasound in Peru: A New Horizon in Expanding Access to Prenatal Ultrasound

A. Why was the study conducted?
• There are significant global inequalities in access to diagnostic Obstetric ultrasound
• An innovative, novel Obstetric telediagnostic ultrasound system was developed to overcome limitations in deploying Obstetric ultrasound to resource-limited areas
• This system was tested in Peru for agreement with standard of care imaging for detection of key aspects of a pregnancy

B. What are the key findings?
• The Obstetric telediagnostic ultrasound system demonstrated excellent agreement with standard of care ultrasound in the identification of fetal presentation, fetal number, placental position, and amniotic fluid volume and high intraclass correlation for measurements of fetal biometry

C. What does this study add to what is already known?
• This study demonstrates feasibility of a novel Obstetric ultrasound telediagnostic system
• Compared to prior studies, the system presented here removes substantial barriers to Obstetric ultrasound access since it does not require the presence of trained sonographer, sonologist, or expensive equipment at the time of ultrasound and has asynchronous remote interpretation utilizing low-bandwith internet connection.