REMI: A Telemedicine System for Antenatal Care – Development and Feasibility Study

Telemedicine is gaining importance for remote healthcare delivery, with chatbots providing an automated way to interact with patients via text. This study examines the design and development of a hybrid clinical–AI chatbot, referred to as REMI (Robot for Expecting Mother's Information), a chatbot integrated with the LINE platform to support pregnant women in monitoring gestational weight gain (GWG) and promoting healthy lifestyles, while enabling healthcare providers to review data and offer personalized advice. Thai singleton pregnant women with pre-pregnancy BMI above 18.5 kg/m<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> self-recorded their weight gain through REMI; among 452 women enrolled in REMI, 245 also received routine antenatal care. A control group of 207 women received usual care at the hospital. Feasibility results indicate that although the proportions of normal and high BMI varied across groups, there were no significant differences in excessive weekly GWG between them. Most REMI users engaged frequently and adapted quickly to the system. These findings suggest that REMI can effectively support pregnant women between clinic visits, potentially reducing outpatient visits and assisting clinicians in patient education and monitoring.