Maternal and Fetal Telemedicine Program

At the Colorado Fetal Care Center, even mountains can't get in the way of our maternal and fetal medicine experts getting families the quality care they need.

About the Maternal and Fetal Telemedicine Program at Colorado Fetal Care Center

For expectant mothers living in an area without specialized medical care, seeing the fetal experts their babies need can be an extraordinary and expensive burden. But thanks to our Maternal and Fetal Telemedicine Program, patients across the country and on the Western Slope can see our world-class fetal cardiologists and maternal fetal medicine specialists without crossing the Continental Divide.

We offer two telemedicine services: fetal cardiology telemedicine and maternal fetal medicine telemedicine.

What is telemedicine?

Telemedicine is personalized and compassionate medical care from a distance using technology. Before telemedicine, families didn't always have access to the specialized diagnostic tools necessary to make an accurate diagnosis, or they had to travel to our hospital in Denver to get the diagnostic tests and see the maternal, fetal and pediatric specialists they needed.

Now, we can touch more lives than ever before, as our telemedicine programs make our specialized expertise and care accessible no matter where you live. This technology allows you to receive care from our specialists while staying close to home and family, encourages continuity of care and empowers local physicians to care for their patients without transferring them to specialty care centers. Learn more about telehealth and how telemedicine works at Children's Hospital Colorado.

Telemedicine for high-risk pregnancy care

By bringing our experts to your hometown, our Fetal Cardiology and Maternal Fetal Medicine Telemedicine Programs have the potential to save you and your family time, stress and money, and can decrease the amount of work missed when attending appointments.

If your pregnancy is considered high-risk or if your primary obstetrical care provider suspects your unborn baby may have a congenital heart defect (CHD) or another fetal condition or abnormality, you may be a candidate for our Maternal and Fetal Telemedicine Programs.

Maternal fetal telehealth and fetal cardiology telemedicine services

When you see one of our fetal cardiologists or MFMs virtually, you receive the same level of attention and expertise that you would had you come in person – but without the drive. At the Colorado Fetal Care Center, we offer a complete spectrum of telemedicine services, including:

• Virtual consults and interpretations of fetal diagnostic tests, like fetal ultrasounds, fetal MRI and echocardiography (heart ultrasound)
• Diagnosis of rare conditions and congenital heart defects
• Real-time consultation with experienced, compassionate fetal cardiologists and maternal fetal medicine specialists (MFMs)
• Laboratory study interpretations
• Second opinions, allowing families to make informed care choices for the rest of the pregnancy
• Treatment planning for your baby's specific situation
• Monitoring of your baby's condition as they grow and develop

Early diagnosis with fetal cardiology telemedicine

Access to expert care and early diagnosis can entirely change the outcome for mothers and their unborn babies. Prenatal diagnosis of fetal heart defects can increase survival and decrease complications for these babies, as newborns with congenital heart defects may be clinically unstable at birth.

Our fetal cardiology telemedicine services provide critical access to fetal cardiac care and help families overcome barriers of care like cost and distance. Working alongside local maternal fetal medicine specialists (MFMs), we can diagnose and manage fetal cardiac anomalies from miles away.

Whether you're seen virtually via telemedicine or here in our Fetal Cardiology Program, you'll be evaluated by specialized fetal cardiologists using state-of-the-art technology to detect heart defects at as early as 14 weeks' gestation.

Mother and baby benefit from telemedicine technology

When your pregnancy becomes high risk, we understand that you want to be seen by doctors who are experts in diagnosing and treating your baby's condition.

The Maternal and Fetal Telemedicine Program ensures you can receive world-class evaluations, treatments and consultations with maternal fetal medicine specialists, no matter how many miles there are between us.

“Using telemedicine really helps my family. Without it, I’d have to bring my kids along for the six to eight-hour drives to and from Denver. Thankfully, we can avoid the three-day trip.”
— Diana C.

How does telemedicine work?

We've made telemedicine work for high-risk moms by establishing partnerships in communities that don't have access to comprehensive fetal cardiology clinics. While the mothers' physical care remains with their local doctor, we provide the specialized high-risk pregnancy management virtually.

These pregnant mothers visit one of our partnership sites where they're seen by an OB or MFM and perinatal sonographer that have been specially trained by our maternal fetal telehealth team.

We use Vidyo to conference virtually with providers and families. To quickly connect to a conference with Vidyo, please download and follow our telemedicine guide (.pdf).

Fetal cardiology telemedicine

In the case of our Fetal Cardiology Telemedicine Program, the local obstetric team will perform the fetal echocardiogram scan, live streaming the scan to our expert fetal cardiologist at the Anschutz Medical Campus in a live video conference.

Telemedicine allows for real-time two-way communication. Our fetal cardiologist can see, evaluate and interpret the image in real time, and can talk to you, direct the local sonographer and ask for immediate additional scans if something requires further evaluation.

Maternal fetal medicine telemedicine

For fetal abnormalities, the local perinatal sonographer, specially trained in performing high-risk pregnancy ultrasounds, will perform your ultrasound. This ultrasound is live streamed to our expert MFM specialist at Anschutz Medical Campus. We then video conference with you to discuss the findings and care plan.

If an abnormality is identified, we may connect you with other resources and services at our fetal care center.

Why choose Children's Colorado for maternal and fetal telemedicine?

In addition to saving time and money, our patients and their babies benefit from faster diagnosis, easy access to care and better treatment plans and outcomes.

Whether you live in Denver, the Front Range or on the Western Slope, or even across the country, you have access to the fetal cardiac expertise and maternal fetal care that you and your baby need.

Coordinated care for mothers and high-risk babies

Geographic barriers aren't the only obstacles we break down; we offer concierge care services and dedicated care coordinators to handle the logistics.

If your baby's condition necessitates coming to our center for treatment or delivery, we don't let anything get in our way of getting you here. Our coordinators can book your travel and accommodation, schedule your appointments and guide your family through the entire process.

Learn more about what it's like to visit our fetal care center.

Comprehensive cardiac care for neonatal heart defects

Our Fetal Cardiology Program is fully integrated with the nationally-ranked pediatric cardiology care at the Heart Institute, the Colorado Fetal Care Center, the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) and the Maternal Fetal Care Unit at Children's Colorado.

This integrative cardiac care model allows our multidisciplinary team to offer the most comprehensive cardiac care before, during and after birth. From prenatal diagnosis of CHDs to delivery in our luxury delivery suites, performing life-saving cardiac interventions and then caring for babies as they heal and grow in our CICU, we have the capabilities, technology and expertise to get the best possible outcome for your family.

 
And should you need to undergo a fetal intervention, open fetal surgery or intervention at delivery, our care coordinators can facilitate a seamless transition from your hometown to our Maternal Fetal Care Unit (MFCU).

Quick access to high-quality fetal care

Our Maternal Fetal Telemedicine Program allows expectant mothers with a suspected fetal condition to receive an evaluation and confirmed diagnosis right away.

This matters greatly, as early intervention in these high-risk pregnancies could help halt the progression of your child's disease or prevent other complications from developing. Learn more about the 24/7 world-class, compassionate care provided at our Maternal Fetal Medicine Program.

“This technology allowed my husband to be by my side during my appointments, and the doctor and sonographer were great. I’m so happy we could get everything done in Grand Junction. I highly recommended receiving care via telemedicine.”
— Lucy L.

Contact the Colorado Fetal Care Center

If you have questions about our telemedicine capabilities at the Colorado Fetal Care Center or how to integrate telemedicine into your practice, contact us via phone at 720-777-4463 or by email at fetalcare@childrenscolorado.org.

Maternal Fetal Telemedicine Program locations

We currently only offer our maternal fetal and fetal cardiology telemedicine services in Colorado, but are actively expanding to other regions. If you're interested in bringing our telemedicine capabilities to your area, please have your primary OB or MFM contact us directly at 720-777-4463.