Thank you for visiting nature. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer. In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. Obstetric ultrasound OBUS is recommended as part of antenatal care for pregnant individuals worldwide. To better understand current uses of OBUS in low- and middle-income countries and perceptions regarding potential use of artificial intelligence AI -assisted OBUS, we conducted an anonymous online global survey.
Assessment of gestational age, fetal viability, fetal presentation, and multiple gestation were both the most common OBUS uses and among the most highly prioritized for AI-assisted OBUS development. Better understanding the OBUS user, the pregnant individual, and the context, and taking care to ensure responsible, sustainable, and inclusive development and use of AI-assisted OBUS will be critical to successful integration and implementation and to increasing access to OBUS.
However, because of a variety of logistical, infrastructural, human capacity, and financial challenges, implementing and scaling up this recommendation in many resource-constrained settings has been limited 4 , 5.
While there are no reliable data on how many pregnant individuals globally receive an OBUS, due to increased portability, durability, usability, and affordability, ultrasound use is increasing, including in low- and middle-income countries LMIC 4 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , A versatile and safe imaging technology, ultrasound has a wide variety of applications and uses, with OBUS being the most common indication for ultrasound in LMIC 4 , 6 , 13 , 16 , However, to obtain and interpret OBUS imaging requires trained healthcare providers, and these healthcare providers are not available in all healthcare settings in LMIC.
To facilitate healthcare providers to use OBUS to identify and measure various obstetrical and fetal features and conditions, artificial intelligence AI -assisted OBUS algorithms to obtain high-quality images and to automatically interpret them are being developed and evaluated 18 , Of particular relevance to resource-constrained settings are AI-assisted OBUS algorithms designed to enable novice OBUS users to assess and monitor maternal and fetal health for guiding obstetric care and decision-making.
