Ochsner Health's Connected MOM Program: Managing Hypertension During Pregnancy and Postpartum

In part 2 of this interview, Joseph Biggio, MD, system chair and service line leader for women's services and system chair for maternal fetal medicine at Ochsner Health, discusses some of the main innovations within Ochsner’s Connected Maternity Online Monitoring (Connected MOM) program that led to its HHS Hypertension Innovator Award.

Transcript

What were some of the key strategies or technologies used in Connected MOM that contributed to its success in managing hypertension during pregnancy and postpartum?

One of the key distinguishing factors for us with the Connected MOM program is that the blood pressure cuff that we provide to patients is one that's Bluetooth enabled, and it interfaces with their smartphone. Through the app on the smartphone, it directly interfaces and uploads the data into their electronic health record in Epic, so we're not relying on a patient to send emails or text messages with blood pressure measurements. Because it goes directly into their electronic health record, it allows the patient to take their blood pressure at home as many times a week as their obstetric provider asks them to. Because they [blood pressure measurements] go into that patient's individual record, the provider can see those blood pressure measurements when they open the patient's chart, so, when they come in for a clinic visit. If there are abnormal readings, the provider gets a message in their inbox about significantly abnormal readings. And in addition, the provider has a dashboard that lists all their patients who are enrolled in Connected MOM, and they can see all their patients at a glance. By looking at that dashboard, it lets them see what the blood pressure readings have been and how long it's been since the patient last took a blood pressure, so they can see compliance.

The other thing about Connected MOM is that when the patients are taking their blood pressures, there is feedback from the system as the patient takes the blood pressures if a patient has a significantly elevated blood pressure or even a mildly elevated blood pressure. If it's mildly elevated, they get a message that says, “Hey, please retake your blood pressure.” If it is then severely elevated or persistently elevated, they get a message that tells them based on the degree of elevation either to call their provider's office, depending on the time of day, or to call labor and delivery for further instructions. So, it helps provide some immediate feedback to let the patient know what's going on.