Child research

ANTE- AND PERINATAL DAMAGE
Reproductive care
before, during and after birth
kbloemen@umcutrecht.nl mbekker3@umcutrecht.nl
Mireille Bekker, MD, PhD
is a maternal fetal medicine
specialist with an interest in
fetal medicine, counseling,
patient empowerment and
eHealth in obstetric care. She’s
a member of the board of the
national NIPT consortium that
performs nationwide implementation
studies (Trials by
Dutch laboratories for
Evaluation of Non-Invasive
Prenatal Testing). Mireille is the
project leader of several
research projects regarding
home telemonitoring and
other eHealth strategies in
obstetric health care.
Kitty Bloemenkamp. MD,
PhD is and has been a PI of
several randomized controlled
trials, observational studies
and experimental studies in
the field of maternal health.
She is the Chairman of Nethoss
(Netherlands Obstetric Survey
Study), National Enquiry of
Maternal Death Review,
Netherlands and of INOSS
(International Network of
Obstetric Survey Systems).
Improving the health of women and
children is a global public health issue.
This mission was adopted by all United
Nations Member States in 2015 and
addresses sustainable development to
ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing
at all ages.
In this research area of Child Health, we focus on reproductive,
maternal, newborn and child health. More specifically, we develop
novel clinical strategies to innovate and improve the quality of care for
the mother, fetus and child by integrating research with clinical care.
This includes translational research, advanced imaging technologies,
creating and integrating patient registries, diagnosis accompanied by
genetic testing, eHealth, auditing to evaluate impact and value-based
health care approaches. This is done in close collaboration with our
colleagues in the fields of fertility, gynaecology and neonatology.
In this way we investigate the entire lifecycle from preconception and
complicated pregnancy to delivery, postpartum and consequences of
these complications later in life.
eHealth and high-risk pregnancy
eHealth converges healthcare and technology, and is allowing our
patients to actively participate in their own healthcare regimens. It also
provides our physicians up-to-date information about our patients, in
real-time, making diagnosis and treatment more efficient and
accurate. And with the availability of mobile phones and internetbased
applications, we can reach women and their babies in
improverished areas.
We often use eHealth methods in our research and care, and to share
our findings. For example, women with high-risk pregnancies need to
visit the hospital frequently, which may become burdensome on both
the mother and unborn child. We’re currently running two studies,
Safe@home and HOTEL, using smart telemonitoring systems. In the
SAFE@home study, we monitor pregnant women at home for high-risk
factors, for example high blood pressure and diabetes, reducing the
number of visits they need to make to the doctor. In the HOTEL study,
the fetal condition is monitored at home by a fetal cardiotocography
device instead of hospital admission or daily visits.
10 UMC Utrecht - Child research