Q&A: Why startups ought to work with the healthcare business to enhance maternal care

In contrast with different rich international locations, the U.S. lags with regards to maternal well being outcomes. Maternal mortality charges have typically worsened since 1987, reaching 23.8 deaths per 100,000 reside births in 2020. The mortality price for Black ladies was almost thrice increased than the speed for white ladies.

Melissa Hanna, CEO and cofounder of maternal well being startup Mahmee, sat down with MobiHealthNews to debate how their platform goals to enhance being pregnant and postpartum care, the corporate’s current $9.2 million Collection A increase and the rising digital maternal well being panorama. This interview was edited for readability and size.

MobiHealthNews: Are you able to inform me a bit about how Mahmee works from the affected person perspective?

Melissa Hanna: New and anticipating mother and father can be a part of Mahmee free of charge. And the core facet of that have for anybody who’s becoming a member of consists of the unified well being file for mother and child. So, they’re capable of hyperlink collectively well being file data from the mom’s medical historical past and being pregnant historical past to the childbirth expertise, and child’s delivery story and first 12 months of life. So, we actually concentrate on conception via the newborn’s first 12 months of life and documenting all the points of care and well being that occurred throughout that point.

One other a part of that’s entry to the nationwide Mahmee community of suppliers which are utilizing our software program throughout the nation. [They] are primarily community-based delivery and toddler care professionals. So these are of us which may be midwives, doulas, lactation consultants, residence visiting nurses or residence well being suppliers, nutritionists, therapists, social employees. They’re all sorts of community-based professionals that sufferers are prone to interface with sooner or later throughout their maternity expertise however are sometimes not thought of core members of the affected person’s care staff the way in which that OB-GYNs and pediatricians are.

And Mahmee’s attempting to alter that. We’re attempting to make it simpler for folks to combine these neighborhood care professionals into their common course of care since we all know that it is actually these community-based professionals which have the best likelihood for offering high-touch preventative care. 

The ultimate piece is the flexibility to trace vitals and monitor psychological well being and different key points of the being pregnant and postpartum journey that may be early alerts of problems and dangers. So, actually with the ability to maintain all that in a single place – handle your care staff, handle your well being, personal your well being file for you and your child – are the three items of that puzzle. 

MHN: So, there are clearly issues with conventional maternal healthcare within the U.S. What do you assume are a number of the largest points that you just’re hoping Mahmee will assist repair?

Hanna: The primary may be very excessive fragmentation. This can be a very fragmented market, the place there’s simply a number of completely different varieties of execs typically working in a wide range of scientific and outpatient settings that present a wide range of completely different providers to new and anticipating mother and father. And in lots of instances, they do not have the digital instruments and knowledge sharing capability to work collectively and collaborate on that care. So, there’s simply a number of completely different items of a puzzle unfold out, and the affected person turns into accountable for linking every thing collectively and having the burden of re-sharing their story with each new one that joins their care staff. 

That fragmentation isn’t going to go away. This can be a extremely privatized market. There’s lots of people that work “out of community,” and I do not see that basically altering any time quickly. And, to resolve that top fragmentation, we constructed know-how that hyperlinks individuals collectively in a manner that permits them to speak and collaborate in order that it appears like they’re working collectively, even when all of them work in several organizations in several environments.

The second factor is systemic racism and bias in healthcare. That is one thing that has existed because the basis of this nation and the formation of the obstetrics and gynecological business. And we have to acknowledge that we’ve not paid consideration to the wants of Black and brown ladies, particularly Black and Indigenous ladies. Broadly, we’ve not been actively listening to moms for a very long time, which is why our maternal mortality stats are the place they’re, as a result of we’re ready for issues to occur slightly than actively stopping them from occurring with extra scientific and psychosocial assist.

The best way that we’re addressing systemic racism and bias in maternal and toddler healthcare is by first constructing out a nationwide community of culturally competent suppliers {and professional} delivery professionals that perceive how you can meet sufferers the place they’re at, and acknowledge that lived expertise is a component of the whole journey of being pregnant and postpartum. 

We have to acknowledge that lived expertise. We won’t at all times match a affected person with somebody who seems to be like them or comes from their neighborhood, however we will match sufferers with suppliers who acknowledge the systemic racism and bias that that affected person could have skilled – of their lifetime and of their healthcare expertise total – and start to handle and unpack that. 

MHN:  You lately accomplished your Collection A. How do you intend on utilizing that funding?

Hanna: We’re completely increasing our staff to have the ability to serve extra sufferers and suppliers via our platform. So, that is the primary factor, rising that staff in each route. We’re posting jobs each few days. 

It is actually vital that we proceed to enhance the digital expertise for sufferers and suppliers on Mahmee. That features issues like releasing a local cell product and enhancing accessibility and person expertise throughout the board. So product and engineering is an enormous space for hiring within the firm. We have already introduced some new of us on, and we will proceed rising there. After which, after all, we even have our nurses and care coordinators in-house. 

MHN: Digital well being funding has slowed up to now this 12 months, but it surely looks as if there are a number of startups which are fascinated with maternal and reproductive healthcare and enhancing that have. Do you assume traders are extra fascinated with maternal well being proper now? And in that case, why do you assume this inflection level is occurring proper now?

Hanna: That is an ideal query. I do assume that we’re coming to an inflection level. I truly do not assume we’re there but. 

Primarily based on our fundraising experiences in 2021 and 2022, it is clear to me that almost all traders nonetheless are not sure of how you can consider impression and assess the worth of maternal and toddler health-focused options. There’s nonetheless very regularly within the funding panorama a pull towards consumer-facing options that form of eschews the healthcare business itself.

MHN: Like an app the place somebody will monitor [their pregnancy] day by day for themselves, versus working with a supplier.

Hanna: Sure, precisely. There’s a number of extra conventional shopper approaches popping up in maternal and toddler healthcare, claiming to have the ability to resolve a number of the basic challenges that this discipline is going through. However the place I see a misalignment available in the market is that the basic challenges that this discipline is going through are systemic. You’ll be able to’t repair the healthcare business with out working with the healthcare business. 

It is not that direct-to-consumer options are ineffective. The truth is, typically, they are often precisely what the affected person wants to enrich their healthcare journey. Nonetheless, the problem is that this explicit vertical is presently stricken by extraordinarily expensive systemic points, together with however not restricted to systemic racism, waste and reactive drugs, fragmentation, regional disparities in care, maternity deserts missing the crucial service suppliers which are wanted for secure and wholesome childbirth. So there isn’t any quantity of child monitoring or maternity monitoring alone that is going to resolve a few of these challenges. 

I do not wish to be too self-righteous about this; it has been extraordinarily onerous to work on this business. It does not transfer simply or rapidly in any route. A lot of that has to do with the truth that ladies’s well being and ladies’s lives and rights have been taken without any consideration and ignored, or in some instances, outright ignored. 

Over the previous 12 months, we have seen extra momentum, extra motion within the house typically. I famous that I do not assume that we’re on the inflection level but. I feel there’s nonetheless extra pleasure and optimistic development on this market to return. It does not assist us if we’re the one ones available in the market. I feel that there is some thrilling motion right here occurring total, and I simply do not assume we’re on the pinnacle but of individuals actually understanding what’s potential.