Robotics in rural Alabama obstetrics care gets mixed reviews

36 of Alabama's 54 counties lack any obstetrics care.
(Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko, Unsplash)

People are conflicted about part of the Alabama Rural Health Transformation Program, which aims to add robotic ultrasound machines in rural areas of the state, reports Liz Carey for The Daily Yonder. Many experts agree that the state's biggest obstacles to ensuring healthy pregnancies, babies and moms is access.

Alabama has the highest maternal mortality rate in the U.S., with 41 of its 54 counties lacking labor and delivery services and 36 counties without any obstetrics care.

While the new robots address a lack of technical support in rural healthcare, the real issue, medical care access, isn't addressed by robot-providing ultrasounds, according to an OB/GYN in Jasper, Alabama.

“There may be a case where a mom may have low fluid, and that patient needs to go to a hospital,”  LoRissa Autery told Fox54 News. “But if you’re in a part of the county that doesn’t have a hospital that has obstetrical services, now you have to drive an hour to an hour and a half to receive those services from a physician that did not do the ultrasound.”

New technology can help provide access to care, but to do so, it requires basic healthcare infrastructure and reliable broadband internet access, Katy Kozhimannil, a professor and co-director of a rural health research center at the University of Minnesota, told the Yonder.

The Alabama's plan also outlines programs to supply emergency labor and delivery carts to rural hospitals, pair patients with specialty providers, and distribute equipment upgrades and minor building renovations, reports Carey.

Some state and federal officials have praised the plan, while others have given it mixed reviews, Carey adds.