Babyscripts, a virtual care platform for managing obstetrics, announced today that they are entering into a partnership with the Asian American Health Coalition, dba HOPE Clinic, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) serving the community of Houston, Texas. The partnership provides pregnant patients who receive care at HOPE Clinic access to the Babyscripts myJourney app and remote monitoring solutions during the entirety of their prenatal journey and beyond.
This partnership reflects a commitment by HOPE Clinic and Babyscripts to target and reduce systemic racial and ethnic inequities in both maternal and infant outcomes in Houston, where rates of maternal mortality and morbidity exceed the Texas state average by 20 percent according to the most recent data. Out of the total deliveries in Harris County, one in five women (22 percent) had at least one condition that put them at higher risk for severe maternal morbidity, including hypertension, diabetes, obesity and mental illness, including depression and other conditions.
The Babyscripts program offered through HOPE Clinic addresses these issues through digital education and remote patient monitoring, leading to reductions in overall healthcare costs and improved outcomes for both mom and baby. The program involves the delivery of the Babyscripts myJourney app, fully customizable by practice, to every pregnant patient at HOPE Clinic. Babyscripts myJourney enables access to gestational age appropriate content, email campaigns, satisfaction surveys, appointment reminders, and weight monitoring, in English and Spanish, at various literacy levels to improve accessibility. The app also delivers evidence-based guidelines approved by the patient’s obstetrician in the form of daily nutritional, medical and lifestyle action items.
In addition to the use of the Babyscripts myJourney app, HOPE Clinic will offer their pregnant patients maternal health monitoring experiences powered by Babyscripts. Using an internet-connected blood pressure cuff, mothers can remotely monitor their BP levels from the comfort of their home, potentially reducing office visits while still capturing vital data that can lead to life-saving interventions, a critical efficiency for mothers struggling with barriers to access. Remote BP monitoring will also be available to mothers in the postpartum period to monitor for and manage postpartum hypertension, one of the leading causes of maternal mortality. Through a unique trigger alert system, abnormal BP readings are communicated back to the provider, enabling management and intervention.
“HOPE Clinic is funded to provide care for indigent patients — often unfamiliar with the healthcare system, struggling with barriers to care like low literacy and social determinants of health,” said Dr. Andrea Caracostic, MD, MPH, and CEO of HOPE Clinic. “Through this collaboration with Babyscripts, we are helping ensure that mothers in these vulnerable populations receive the care they need regardless of risk, closing these gaps in care for our mothers by expanding care far outside the clinic.”
“The past year has really brought the problems of health equity into the spotlight, and the barriers facing minority and low-income women especially,” said Juan Pablo Segura, President and Co-founder of Babyscripts. “Technology has the potential to be an equalizer, and it should come at no cost to the patient. By offering Babyscripts Virtual Maternity Care to their patients, HOPE Clinic is committing to delivering the best in maternity care to the underserved, so that no mother has to go without.”
Mothers will be able to use the Babyscripts myJourney app and devices to stay connected to their care team, be informed about their pregnancy, and send health data remotely and securely to their health care provider, providing additional flexibility and transparency between moms and clinical teams. Patients will be kept abreast of changing policies and emerging protocols around COVID-19 and beyond through custom campaigns delivered by HOPE Clinic via the myJourney app, to ensure that patients are receiving the most up-to-date information available.
Babyscripts has spent the last seven years building a clinically-validated, virtual care platform to allow OBGYNs to deliver a new model of prenatal care. Using internet-connected devices for remote monitoring, Babyscripts offers risk-specific experiences to allow providers to manage up to 90% of pregnancies virtually, allowing doctors to detect risk more quickly and automate elements of care.
