. The rise has been fueled by improved maternal health services and increased access to affordable care, researchers say, but also greater demand for the procedure from more affluent patients.
Now, Hedt-Gauthier is part of a research project field testing a mobile phone app that uses artificial intelligence to detect infections, potentially speeding treatment. in which doctors examined women 10 days after cesarean delivery found about 11% had bacterial infections. By comparison, the infection rate is about 7% in more developed countries. The study, published in the, found that Rwandans can find postoperative care—which includes monitoring infections and changing wound dressings—burdensome, in part because they must make long, costly trips to the hospital.
The team then explored automating the process, which came with its own challenges. First, researchers needed to collect high-quality images of cesarean wounds to train the underlying algorithm. But variations in phone camera settings, lighting, and other conditions affected image quality. “The problem is you give me a camera and I will take a photo from one particular angle, but another photographer might use a different angle,” Hedt-Gauthier says.