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New AI tool offers insights to improve safety for mothers and babies in maternity care

Loughborough University researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that identifies the key human factors influencing maternity care outcomes, supporting ongoing efforts to improve safety for mothers and babies.

Professor Georgina Cosma and Professor Patrick Waterson headshots.

Professor Georgina Cosma and Professor Patrick Waterson.

Developed by AI and data scientist Professor Georgina Cosma and human factors and complex systems expert Professor Patrick Waterson, the tool analyses maternity incident reports to highlight key human factors – such as communication, teamwork, and decision-making – that may have impacted care outcomes, providing insights into areas that could benefit from additional support.

When an adverse maternity incident occurs in England, detailed investigation reports are produced to identify opportunities for learning and enhancing safety.

These reports provide valuable insights into clinical aspects that impacted care, such as health conditions, procedures, and tests. However, identifying the human factors involved is often more challenging, as they tend to be complex and nuanced.

Currently, experts must carry out manual reviews to extract human factor insights from incident reports. This process is resource-intensive, time-consuming, and relies on individual interpretation and expertise, which can lead to varying conclusions.

The AI tool addresses these challenges by identifying and categorising human factors in reports quickly and consistently. Its standardised approach allows it to analyse multiple reports and identify recurring factors, helping pinpoint areas that would benefit most from additional support.

The AI model was trained and tested on data from 188 real maternity incident reports. It successfully identified human factors in each report and analysed them collectively, providing insights into where extra support could improve outcomes.

"AI has transformed our analysis of maternity safety reports. We've uncovered crucial insights far quicker than manual methods," said Professor Cosma.

“This has enabled us to gather a comprehensive understanding of where there are areas for improvement in maternity care, and these insights can help identify ways to enhance patient safety and improve outcomes for mothers and babies."

Insights from the reports

Teamwork and communication emerged as the most frequently identified human factors across all the analysed reports, underscoring the importance of effective collaboration and clear information exchange among healthcare professionals and patients in promoting safety and quality in maternity care.

The analysis also emphasised the importance of thorough patient evaluations – including assessments, investigations, and screenings – as well as the impact of individual patient characteristics, such as birth history and conditions like pre-eclampsia, on care outcomes.

The AI tool identified challenges related to medical technology use and staff performance, indicating that ongoing training and support could improve care outcomes. It also provided insights into how COVID-19 affected maternity services, underscoring the need for adaptability in practices.

The analysis also indicated that certain human factors might have a greater impact on mothers from ethnic minority groups. However, due to the limited number of reports that included ethnicity data, further research is required to reach definitive conclusions.

Next steps

The Loughborough researchers hope to secure funding to refine the AI model using a larger, more diverse dataset as expanded testing is essential to validate the tool’s effectiveness and further understand the challenges faced by mothers from ethnic minority groups in maternity care.

"We are seeking to collaborate with hospitals, healthcare organisations, and investigation bodies to further refine and apply our AI tool to reports. These partnerships will help us extract vital intelligence to prevent adverse incidents and ensure the safety of all mothers and babies," said Professor Cosma.

“We also hope to adapt the tool for use with other types of reports, such as adverse police incident reports, where understanding the human factors involved can help prevent future incidents and improve response strategies.”

The importance of the research for improving maternity care 

Professor Waterson said: “Our work opens up new possibilities for understanding the complex interplay between social, technical, and organisational factors influencing maternal safety and population health outcomes. 

“The need for such research was highlighted in the Ockenden Review, which examined maternity care and set to improve safety and care quality in maternity services.

“By taking a more comprehensive view of maternal healthcare delivery, we can develop targeted interventions to improve maternal outcomes for all mothers and babies.”  

The Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) investigates patient safety concerns across England to improve NHS and independent healthcare at a national level.

When asked about the research, Dr Jonathan Back, a safety insights analyst at HSSIB, said it "could help analysts working in health and care to identify where there are inequalities, maximising learning by bringing together findings from multiple investigations".

Information on the AI tool and findings from the analysis of the 188 reports has been published in a new paper in the International Journal of Population Data Science. The full paper is available on the journal’s website.  

The AI tool was developed as part of a project called ‘I-SIRch’, which was jointly funded by the Health Foundation and the NHS AI Lab at the NHS Transformation Directorate and supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

Notes for editors

Press release reference number: 24/195

About Loughborough University 

Loughborough is one of the country’s leading universities, with an international reputation for research that matters, excellence in teaching, strong links with industry, and unrivalled achievement in sport and its underpinning academic disciplines. 

It has been awarded five stars in the independent QS Stars university rating scheme and named the best university in the world for sports-related subjects in the 2024 QS World University Rankings – the eighth year running. 

Loughborough is ranked 7th in The UK Complete University Guide 2025, 10th in the Guardian University League Table 2025 and 10th in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024. 

Loughborough is consistently ranked in the top twenty of UK universities in the Times Higher Education’s ‘table of tables’, and in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 over 90% of its research was rated as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally-excellent’. In recognition of its contribution to the sector, Loughborough has been awarded seven Queen's Anniversary Prizes. 

The Loughborough University London campus is based on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and offers postgraduate and executive-level education, as well as research and enterprise opportunities. It is home to influential thought leaders, pioneering researchers and creative innovators who provide students with the highest quality of teaching and the very latest in modern thinking. 

About the NIHR

The mission of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research. We do this by:

  • Funding high quality, timely research that benefits the NHS, public health and social care;
  • Investing in world-class expertise, facilities and a skilled delivery workforce to translate discoveries into improved treatments and services;
  • Partnering with patients, service users, carers and communities, improving the relevance, quality and impact of our research;
  • Attracting, training and supporting the best researchers to tackle complex health and social care challenges;
  • Collaborating with other public funders, charities and industry to help shape a cohesive and globally competitive research system;
  • Funding applied global health research and training to meet the needs of the poorest people in low and middle income countries.

NIHR is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. Its work in low and middle income countries is principally funded through UK international development funding from the UK government.

About the Health Foundation

The Health Foundation is an independent charity working to improve the quality of healthcare in the UK. We are here to support people working in healthcare practice and policy to make lasting improvements to health services. We carry out research and in-depth policy analysis, fund improvement programmes in the NHS, support and develop leaders and share evidence to encourage wider change. The Health Foundation awarded £1.4m to four projects to address racial and ethnic health inequalities using artificial intelligence (AI). 

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