Christopher Redman obituary

Obstetric physician who collaborated on the development of life-saving software to interpret foetal heart traces

Pre-eclampsia is a dangerous pregnancy complication, once so mysterious it was dubbed the disease of theories", but the obstetric physician Christopher Redman greatly improved the understanding of how to treat it and why it develops. Redman, who has died aged 82, spent his career at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford, where he set up the world-class Silver Star Unit to care for women with pre-eclampsia and other complex pregnancies. He was an early pioneer of computer technology, creating a sonicaid monitoring device that bears his name, and which is used today in about 130 countries to analyse unborn babies' health and has saved countless lives.

Redman initially intended to become a paediatrician, but his career path changed in 1970. Then a junior lecturer in Oxford University's department of medicine, he was asked to run a trial on women with high blood pressure as a result of pre-eclampsia.