How technology is transforming maternal health in Greater Manchester and beyond
When the Greater Manchester Smokefree Pregnancy Programme kicked off in 2018, of the 36,000 annual births in the city-region, 13% of expectant mothers were smoking at the time of delivery.
But thanks to the multi-faceted strategy that combines publicly funded financial incentives for patients, Accenture’s digital platform, and the seamless integration of smoking cessation support into routine prenatal care, smoking at time of delivery rates have dropped by more than half. In fact, over 7,000 more babies have been born smokefree, with a goal of lowering smoking rates among pregnant women to below 5% by 2030 – as set by the UK National Health Service.
Increasing access to care
Smoking during pregnancy disproportionately affects women from the most disadvantaged backgrounds. According to NHS research, women from the poorest 10% of the population are six times more likely to smoke compared to their more affluent counterparts.
Previously, midwives referred pregnant women who smoke to separate NHS stop smoking services—which often increased barriers to access support.
Now, with midwives trained as smoking cessation advisors, support is delivered directly within prenatal appointments, fundamentally reshaping the care experience and increasing access for all.
Putting digital innovation at the core
One of the other key challenges faced by the program was reliance on traditional paper-based systems which could be lost, misread or duplicated with changes. This hindered data collection, service evaluation and real time access to information.
Accenture partnered with specialist smoking cessation teams to co-design a digital platform that centralizes scheduling, availability, and case management in one place. It also enhances data capability and streamlines time management, enabling specialist midwives and advisors to more effectively plan their work and provide timely, targeted support to help pregnant women quit smoking.
The platform has been successfully implemented across 10 areas of Greater Manchester, including the six hospital trusts that provide care across the city-region. This has helped to reduce human input errors and provided access to real-time data for enhanced decision making - crucial for enabling more effective patient engagement and improving health outcomes.
The digital solution also provided a wider engagement beyond maternity care, accelerating the process of reaching and enrolling more patients into the Smokefree program.
To track pregnant women’s progress on their stop smoking journeys, Accenture developed dashboards for local maternity hospitals, reducing the need for manual tracking and record management. Midwives now having real-time insights at their fingertips to discuss and support their patients’ smoking status and available support and treatment.
Using this real-time insight and intelligence, advisors can make timely interventions such as sending email and text message notifications to patients – reducing variation in contact and communication across the city-region and improving positive engagement with stop smoking services, leading to more successful quits.
The program team also has access to data to monitor the quality of program delivery so they can adjust their approach to better support each individual patient, implement early interventions where necessary, and maintain an up-to-date view of overall progress and success rates at any given time.
Saving time to save lives
Midwives reported saving 10 minutes of manual data entry time per appointment, reducing administrative tasks by 20%, and freeing up more time to support pregnant women with their journey to quitting smoking. Engagement with maternity-led stop smoking services increased by over 50%, and the return on investment for the program is estimated to be over £15m annually based on local audit data. For example, the decrease in the number of extra ultrasound scans required for pregnant women who smoke has saved £1.18 million annually alone.
Building on successes and expanding impact
Patient feedback on the program has been overwhelmingly positive, with patients feeling more supported and motivated to quit smoking. Midwives have noted a significant improvement in patient engagement and a reduction in the time spent on follow-up appointments, allowing them to focus on more complex cases and better meeting patient needs.
Based on Greater Manchester’s enormous success, the UK Department of Health and Social Care is now scaling and spreading this innovative digital technology to implement a nationwide smokefree pregnancy incentive program in 2025. This will expand its reach to thousands more patients across England and create better outcomes for mothers and newborns.