Heart Safe Motherhood

Why Heart Safe Motherhood?

Hypertension is a leading cause of maternal morbidity and mortality. Heart Safe Motherhood was created to improve care for mothers with hypertension after delivery and change those statistics.

Preventable Death

1 in 5 of the 700 maternal deaths each year in the US are linked to preeclampsia.

Preventable Disease

For every maternal death in the United States, there are about 100 episodes of severe maternal morbidity.

ACOG Guidelines

Guidelines recommend monitoring BP at 72 hours and 7-10 days postpartum in at-risk women.

Patient-Centered

With a new baby at home, frequent in-person visits are not feasible. We can care for women in a better way.

Provider-Friendly

Heart Safe Motherhood makes remote monitoring easy so that you can focus on caring for your patients.

Evidence-Based Model

Our model is supported by published results from a randomized controlled trial and rapid-cycle testing.

The Evidence

In 2017, we completed a randomized controlled trial comparing Heart Safe Motherhood to the usual care of one-time, office-based blood pressure checks.

We found an increase in our ability to obtain at least one blood pressure within ten days of discharge in 92% of patients using text messaging, compared to 44% in usual care. We met ACOG guidelines in 80% of our patients. Readmissions dropped to zero percent among remote monitored women in the trial.

Heart Safe Motherhood not only enables real-time notification of severely elevated blood pressures, but also sheds light on blood pressure trends over time and allows providers to request additional blood pressure readings to follow-up on medication changes. By adapting algorithms from office visit care, we are able safely to start antihypertensive medications remotely prior to the development of morbidity and direct the right women to in-person care at the right time.

Program Features

Patient Experience

Provider Experience

Patient engagement

On the day after discharge, patients start on a remote monitoring protocol with automated reminders and feedback over a ten-day surveillance period enabled by Way to Health, a Penn-developed platform for evidence-based, personalized engagement strategies.

Efficient automation

Providers focus on the information they need to know through alerts and dashboards. Providers are alerted only when blood pressures are high enough to necessitate intervention.

Real-world expertise

The Heart Safe Motherhood approach to patient identification, education, engagement, monitoring, and management was developed over four years to maximize impact, convenience, ease of use, and patient safety.

Continual innovation

Heart Safe Motherhood is continuously evolving as we find new ways to engage patients, improve provider experience, and maximize impact through real-world implementations and innovative research.

The Team

We are Maternal Fetal Medicine specialists with an interest in preeclampsia who care deeply about our patients, research, and innovation before, during, and after pregnancy.

Sindhu Srinivas, MD, MSCE

Director, Obstetrical Services, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Vice Chair of Quality and Safety, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Co-Founder and Medical Director, Heart Safe Motherhood

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