An Information System in Obstetrics: Electronic
Labor Book
Michal HUPTYCH1, Václav CHUDÁČEK1, Lukáš HRUBAN2, Petr JANKŮ2, Lenka LHOTSKÁ1
1
Dept. of Cybernetics, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic, huptycm@fel.cvut.cz
2
Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Brno University Hospital and Masaryk University Medical School, Brno, Czech Republic
Abstract. This paper describes an electronic version of paperbased documentation called “labor book”. The application is
implemented as a classical information system and consists of
user interface and database system for storing data. The user
interface is implemented in Java. For storage and retrieval of
records Microsoft SQL Server relational database platform is
used. The user interface is designed to be a simple information
input into the system. The application was created in
collaboration with obstetricians from the Department of
Gynecology and Obstetrics of University Hospital Brno
Bohunice. The application is currently deployed in the
University Hospital Brno Bohunice.
Keywords. Information system, database system, obstetrics,
neonatology, labor, labor book
I. INTRODUCTION
The labor book is a document containing information about
a mother (e.g. age, residence, gravidity, parity, etc.), during
labor (e.g. diagnosis, indication for surgery, surgery), the
outcome of labor (Apgar score, pH) and immediate
information about the newborn’s measures (e.g. length,
weight) together with reported findings from neonatology
department (traumatism, intubation, placement on ICU).
Statistics can be computed from these data in selected areas
of interest (e.g. number of surgical procedures, number of
certain types of diagnosis, number of cesarean sections,
relative perinatal mortality, etc.) monthly. Given that in the
University Hospital Brno there are performed
approximately 5000 labors per year, it takes to create these
statistics from paper labor books a few tens hours of work
per month.
The purpose application presented in this work is to
create an electronic form of labor book to store records in a
single, full-form integrity with an ability to create all
required statistics for reporting with much less effort, than
current paper-based version requires.
records contained not only information that was prescribed
for each form field, but also a lot of additional data. After
gradual composition of materials and a series of
consultations, we came to the decision to divide the area of
interest into three basic parts: information about a woman
in labor, information about the labor itself and information
about a newborn (including information from neonatology).
The proposal is divided into two parts. In the first part
we deal with access of single participants to the three basic
parts of the system - information about a mother,
information about a labor, and information about newborn
and neonatology. In the second part we have defined data
model of application. The first part of design is
schematically illustrated using use case diagram. We use
the diagrams for description of system, not for description
of user access to application. In Figure 1 there is shown the
basic use case diagram of links of healthcare personnel and
a mother and a newborn. In principle, this process is
divided into the administrative part of the admission of
mother to the maternal hospital, and clinical follow-up of
delivery and admission of a newborn to neonatology.
As it is evident from Figure 1, there are four specialized
medical professions in the whole process, namely
obstetrician, neonatologist, midwife and nurse. Each
profession has own role and the role defines validity of
contained data.
II. ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF APPLICATION
Design of the electronic version of labor book is based
on paper documentation, which is conducted in pre-printed
blocks with defined fields. The requirement was to have the
electronic version as similar as possible in structure and
form to the original paper version. Unfortunately, in fact the
Fig. 1 Use case diagram of process admission to maternity hospital,
labour and admission to neonatology
The first part (information about a woman in labor) is
divided into two blocks, namely general information (e.g.
names, addresses and personal identification number) and
information from admission (e.g. date of admission,
gravidity count, parity). Firstly, medical staff is authorized
and subsequently person to be admitted is identified and
medical staff fills basic data about the person. This part
(information about a woman in labor) is divided into two
blocks, namely general information (e. g. names, addresses
and personal identification number – it is identification of
the person) and information from admission (e. g. date and
time of admission, gravidity count, parity). From the time
perspective this block is filled with information as first. In
terms of access to this part of record, it is entered by nurse,
who performs admission of women in labor.
The next part is the description of labor itself. This
part includes date, time of birth, week (+ days) of the
pregnancy, in which the birth was, labor times [1], type of
mechanism of delivery (spontaneous, caesarean section,
etc.), information about anesthesia (no, general, epidural,
etc.) connected to the diagnosis of birth, or indication for
surgery and list of surgeries performed (general
interventions). This part includes also information, which
obstetrician led the labor, about midwife and physicians
that performed surgeries. From time perspective this part is
second in order. The information to this part of record is
filled by midwife or obstetrician, who led the labor.
The third part contains information about newborn(s).
This part is further divided into two sub-parts: The first
sub-part includes a series of data that informs about the
status of newborn after delivery (Apgar score, the blood pH
and base excess [1] and data about sex of newborn, length
and weight. Second sub-part is information from
neonatology, which contains mainly information on the
possible trauma, neonatal intubation (and its length),
location of newborn to the NICU and length of NICU stay,
list of diagnoses and information about dispensary
(dispensary area).
In summary, the labor book contains, in all three above
described parts, 54 parameters.
institution). This method of division was chosen because of
simplicity of the direction to the application interface (for
diagnosis there is only one interface), while maintaining
information about the type of event. The same source
(DASTA) is used for all codebooks in application. The
table intervention is linked to table labor in M:N
relationship. The term "intervention" is chosen deliberately
because not all acts that potentially fall into this area are
surgeries (e. g. a blood transfusion). Last link M: N is
between tables and labor and personnel who participated in
the labor. As mentioned above, these professionals had
been divided into several categories, namely head
obstetrician, midwife, surgeon, and neonatologist. These
categories ascend in the data model as the role and are
linked with employee table over this role table to labor
table. At the same time each employee is assigned to his/her
expertise (doctor, medic, midwife, nurse, pupil, other). The
model is implemented as a relational database in the
database system Microsoft SQL Server.
Fig. 2 Main window of labour book application
III. DATA MODEL AND IMPLEMENTATION OF
APPLICATION
The data model in relation database (see Figure 4) is
based on assumptions that were defined in the previous
section. The basic unifying element is the record about
labor. This is established in relation 1:1 to the admission of
woman in labor, to the mechanism of delivery and
anesthesia (according to the consultation, each birth just
one drive and anesthesia - time does not play a role). Tables
of diagnoses and labor are bound by the relation M: N with
a parameter that determines whether a given diagnosis is an
indication for surgery (indication for surgery is always one
for one labor). Diagnoses are further distinguished into
categories along data standard. We use Czech national data
standard DASTA [2], however codebook of diagnoses in
this standards is the same as WHO standards ICD-10 [3]
(only names of diagnoses are in Czech language and there
are added some parameters for national statistical
Fig. 3 Example of application editor dialog windows
Fig. 4 ER data model diagram.
The original intention was to use the electronic form for
displaying the information as well as for entering new data
and their editing. This intention, however, in the course of
development proved to be unrealistic. In analysis of the
original paper labor book it was found that the records
contain not only information that is prescribed for each
form field, but also a lot of additional data. Therefore we
have decided not to enable editing the parameters directly
in the spreadsheet form. The application was divided to two
parts. The first is a basic table, which displays selected
information from all three parts and is used as overview
(see Figure 2). The second part is an editing form with
separate tabs for editing and filling information (see Figure
3). Entered parameters are grouped into parts according to
the design and editing form can be gradually browsed by
timeline, which was also part of the proposal. The
application is implemented in Java.
IV. CONCLUSION
The described application can store information about
women in labor, process of labor, newborn and its
neonatology in electronic form. Application allows
subsequent processing of records and creation of statistics
for analysis and evaluation of the record in the short,
medium and long term. The main benefit is improved
clarity and consistency of records and much shorter time
required to produce statistics of records with the
possibilities of basic statistics simply extendable to the
combined statistics of the various parameters in given time
intervals.
As a result there is a sufficiently broad base for the
creation of advanced analysis of records, finding of
correlations and definitions of a functional relationships
among parameters of the records. This represents, in terms
of knowledge engineering, the basic element for a
comprehensive description of the problem.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by the research programs No.
NT11124-6/2010 Cardiotocography evaluation by means of
artificial intelligence of the Ministry of Health Care, No.
MSM 6840770012 Trans-disciplinary Research in the Field
of Biomedical Engineering II of the CTU in Prague,
sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
of the Czech Republic.
REFERENCES
[1] ČECH E. at el., Obstetrics, 2nd revised and supplemented edition,
GRADA Publishing, 2006
[2] DASTA – Data standard of Ministry of Health Care of Czech
Republic at http://ciselniky.dasta.mzcr.cz/
[3] International Classification of Diseases
http://www.who.int/classifications/icd/en/
(ICD),
WHO
at