A Web-Based Platform for Low-Risk Prenatal Health Records Integrating Digital Care Management and Usability Validation with Healthcare Professionals

Summary

This work details the development and usability validation of a web-based application designed to digitize records from low-risk prenatal consultations. The tool was developed to optimize the documentation of clinical information, automate obstetric calculations, and enhance the continuity of maternal care, addressing the limitations inherent in manual record-keeping.

Abstract

The quality and completeness of prenatal records are critical to ensuring effective maternal and fetal care. However, the conventional use of printed handbooks for documenting prenatal consultations introduces significant limitations, including incomplete entries, illegibility, and the risk of physical damage or loss. These constraints can compromise continuity of care and the reliability of clinical information. To mitigate these issues, this work presents the development and preliminary usability evaluation of a web-based application designed to digitize and optimize prenatal consultation records. The goal of the protocol is to provide a structured and efficient digital system for recording, consulting, and managing prenatal data, integrating automated obstetric calculations and visualization tools to support clinical decision-making. System requirements were identified through a literature-based analysis of best practices in prenatal care documentation and health information systems. The proposed solution was implemented as a responsive web application that adhered to usability and accessibility standards to facilitate integration into routine clinical workflows. The usability evaluation involved healthcare professionals with previous experience using the printed handbook. Quantitative data were collected using the system usability scale (SUS), while qualitative insights were obtained through semi-structured interviews. The application achieved a mean SUS score of 77.50, indicating good usability and acceptance. Participants highlighted the system’s relevance to clinical practice, its potential to reduce errors, and its capacity to enhance continuity and quality of prenatal care. The findings demonstrate that the proposed protocol effectively shows promise for aligning digital documentation with the operational needs of prenatal health professionals. The system achieved a mean system usability scale score of 77.5, exceeding the industry threshold of 68 and indicating good usability acceptance among the evaluated professionals. These findings suggest that the proposed platform is a feasible and user-acceptable approach for digitizing prenatal health records.

Introduction

In Brazil, prenatal care is a key public health policy for promoting maternal and child well-being¹. Adequate prenatal follow-up encompasses multiple dimensions of care, including clinical actions such as examinations and immunizations, as well as support for the patient’s social and emotional needs². In this context, the Pregnant Woman’s Health Record serves as the official document used for recording and monitoring clinical data throughout pregnancy³.

Despite its importance, the printed version of the health record presents significant limitations, includi....

Protocol

This study involved a usability evaluation in which healthcare professionals provided professional opinions on a software prototype. No personal, clinical, or identifiable data were collected from participants, and all patient records used during sessions were fictional. As the study posed no risk to participants and collected no sensitive data, it was considered exempt from formal ethics committee review. All participants were informed of the study's objectives and provided verbal consent prior to participation.

The methodological web interface proposed in this work was structured to ensure a reproducible process for the design, developmen....

Results

The results section presents the outcomes of the usability evaluation, including quantitative measures from standardized scales and qualitative feedback from healthcare professionals. The analysis focuses on assessing the effectiveness, efficiency, and user acceptance of the web-based prenatal care application. The usability assessment of the prototype yielded an overall System Usability Scale (SUS) score of 77.5, exceeding the commonly cited threshold of 68, which indicates satisfactory usability. The SUS scores were no.......

Discussion

The digital pregnancy record prototype achieved a mean SUS score of 77.5 (SD = 9.35), indicating acceptable usability according to established benchmarks. This result suggests that the combination of Domain-Driven Design principles^25,26 and Hexagonal Architecture¹³, by aligning the system closely with real clinical workflows, contributes positively to perceived usability. The high scores in Efficiency and Error Prevention indicate that the.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Axios	Axios Contributors	1.8.4	N/A
Backend repository	Author	N/A	N/A
Docker	Docker, Inc.	27.x	N/A
Express.js	OpenJS Foundation	5.1.0	N/A
Frontend repository	Author	N/A	N/A
Next.js	Vercel	15.2.4	N/A
Node.js	OpenJS Foundation	22.x	N/A
PostgreSQL	PostgreSQL Global Dev. Group	15.x	N/A
Prisma ORM	Prisma Data, Inc.	6.5.0	N/A
React	Meta Platforms, Inc.	19.0.0	N/A
React Hook Form	react-hook-form Contributors	7.55.0	N/A
Recharts	recharts Contributors	2.15.3	N/A
Render	Render Services, Inc.	N/A	N/A
TanStack Query	TanStack	5.74.4	N/A
TypeScript	Microsoft	5.8.2	N/A
Vercel	Vercel, Inc.	N/A	N/A
Zod	Colin McDonnell	3.24.2	N/A