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Amy Oliver: (Intro) I think this is a great opportunity for other organizations to be able to really, you know, put their money where their mouth is, to be able to drive the change and support that we need from a maternal health standpoint.

I'm Sarah Richardson, a former CIO and president of this Week Health's 2 2 9 community development where we are dedicated to transforming healthcare one connection at a time.

Sarah Richardson: (Main) Welcome to Newsday, where I am joined by Amy Oliver, who is VP of Marketing at Panda Health. Amy brings extensive experience in healthcare marketing and has a passion for improving healthcare access, particularly in areas related to women's health and social determinants of health.

At Panda Health, she helps transform how health systems connect with and adopt leading digital health technologies, providing intelligence on comprehensive solutions for hospitals and health systems. Amy, welcome to the show.

Amy Oliver: Thanks so much for having me.

Sarah Richardson: Great to be here, Sarah. This is our first news day together.

It is our first news day together. Very exciting times for all the time we spend. We don't usually talk about the news per se, but we do talk about the things that are really important to us. And so I'm glad we were able to source articles that are important to you and to me, and share that with our audience.

Amy Oliver: Yes, I think these articles are very timely and just love being able to have the chance to talk about our passions in a setting like this. Agree. And the first article we

Amy, as you well know, that when maternal mortality rates have stalled or worsened in many regions with a vast. Majority of deaths occurring in the poorest countries and those facing conflicts. And according to Dr. Anshu Banerjee, the World Health Organization, director of Maternal Health, the campaign aims to help countries regain lost progress while showcasing new research and evidence that will enhance the health of women and babies globally.

Tell me more about this.

Sarah Richardson: When you think about the global focus on maternal health, the international focus can create momentum for organizations to prioritize this over other initiatives, and then it can increase funding, which is really a tough space because. It's not always easy to fund programs like this. It recreates that renewed attention to inequity.

You and I talk often personally about access and equity, the ability for people to get care when and where they need it. It also shows a disproportionate impact of maternal mortality on vulnerable populations.

Amy Oliver: Yeah, and I think, you know, as rollbacks to humanitarian assistance. Potentially jeopardize this lifeline for millions across the world.

So I think that while we are seeing some potential funding withdrawal, I think this is a great opportunity for other organizations to be able to really, you know, put their money where their mouth is, to be able to drive the change and support that we need from a maternal health standpoint.

Sarah Richardson: I also appreciate how the conversation.

Lends itself to the opportunities to address some of the SDOH that's out there with maternal health outcomes. And not everybody has access to digital platforms and yet resoundingly there is more and more access to digital platforms and when we continuously see that people may not even have secure housing in some cases, but they have a smartphone so that they can connect with their families as an example.

Amy Oliver: Yeah, and I think that. What might work well here is not always apples to apples from a global standpoint, but I think just being able to take the lessons that we are learning and just collaborate at that global scale. Obviously this is much, much bigger than both of us, but I think just being able to say, okay, how are we deploying food from an SDOH standpoint out to underserved communities for example, food Smart, you know, how are we doing that?

And then how can we. Tweak that to be applicable across the world, knowing that there are a lot of considerations that we need to take into account. But just really being able to meet those patients where they are, because all of those social determinants just really impact the outcomes of, you know, not only the mother but the baby as well.

And I'm always hopeful that

basically a priority for measuring progress. And in some countries, birth rates are on the decline. United States being one of them. And so if that is one of your most treasured resources is just humans in your universe that are healthy and can continue to grow and thrive, then that becomes a space where you can lean in a little more thoughtfully than maybe you had in the past.

Amy Oliver: you know, it's. The stuff that tugs on the heartstrings, you know, I mean, I both of us are child free women, I think, but we all love. People and humanity and you know, the thought of just families growing and everyone contributing to this society that we are all grateful to be a part of.

So I think that, yeah, just the opportunity to really lean in is special. Well, there's also that added lens

Let's be honest. We work in healthcare for a reason. We want people to live a longer, healthier, happier life and have access to the things that allow them to do that. And that's sort of like a doubling of my responsibility towards others.

Amy Oliver: Absolutely. I mean, Even just today we have a, ballot on this school, local election and, you know, don't have kids, but I'm voting for it because I know that is just what is good for humanity and all the kiddos around here.

So yes, I think it's a special perspective that we can bring to it and just the responsibility that we, you know, voluntarily take.

Sarah Richardson: Which is why the next article we sourced is so important. It's addressing social determinants for pregnant and postpartum Medicaid beneficiaries. So states are increasingly developing holistic approaches to address both health and social needs of pregnant and postpartum people on Medicaid.

Amy Oliver: I just got chills. I feel like whenever I hear these stats, I just get so. All the emotions, sad, frustrated, mad. You know, 80% of the maternal deaths in the United States are preventable. And if that doesn't make us all just question why we are in this situation, I don't know what will. I think that, For being who we are, the United States of America and having the highest maternal mortality rate among high income countries like us, just not a good feel good thing at all. And I think that, you know, we are in a position where we can actually be helping influence and driving change to help right size that number.

It's very valuable service, and this goes back to the interoperability piece we all think about. How do health systems get access to the SDOH and clinical records combined This may be affected by funding streams because federal initiatives like enhancing maternal health initiative do provide resources for innovative approaches.

You've gotta balance the aspects of each of these populations. That becomes sometimes a tough conversation in where you're focusing the ability for people to have access to you first.

Amy Oliver: I think that enhancing maternal health initiative, I was doing a little bit more research on that, and that has actually expanded into the transforming maternal health model.

Person especially you know, during pregnancy and postpartum when those stakes are really highest. I feel like it's becoming more and more normalized to talk about the challenges that new moms face in that postpartum stage. And I just am so appreciative and, you know, empathetic to, I can't even imagine what they're going through.

So I think that just making sure that we're looking at that whole person and using the tech to enable it is just so important.

Sarah Richardson: And it's right in the wheelhouse of Panda. Consider best DOH screening tools you can integrate into the EHR closed loop referral systems that connect clinical and community-based organizations.

Predictive analytics to know who's at high risk, patient facing apps that empower self-identification of resources and the automated follow-ups to make sure that you've actually received the things that are you're eligible for and that you needed. And here's the thing I love about the proliferation of AI today.

Amy Oliver: Yeah, I think that it will be very interesting to see the technology evolve. The startup that I was at just before this called Zel, they used rules based delivery based on different APIs to really meet the patient where they were. So from a patient education standpoint, it could be triggered manually or based on the patient coming in for their third trimester appointment, and there's a set of information that they get, you know, to just really prepare them.

And I think Continuing that patient education with the opportunity for the anonymous component, I think, you know, helps as we try to balance out. Mental health. Doesn't need to be a stigma, but yet we're still getting there.

Sarah Richardson: And being able for people to understand their privacy is protected and they can trust the different collection of this information.

So trauma informed approaches to digital screening, consent models that give patients control over what they're sharing. I love the concept of cultural adaptation of screening tools for diverse populations because if you already feel marginalized, then it's suited to. You and meets you where you are, then you're gonna build trust through the transparency of how that information gets used and how you can share it.

And then above all else, you'll hear me talk about enterprise architecture, that technology design that protects against discrimination from collected data, removing the bias from the care that is being delivered.

You know, the stats that we just mentioned are just alarming and I think just a huge opportunity here to make sure that we're doing anything that we can to eliminate that bias. I also just think in general with what health systems as a whole, hopefully are coming to realize that it's not just about buying the technology, but it's about building the ecosystems to really support the technology.

So if it's aligning Medicaid reimbursements or integrating the SDOH data into the patient chart training the frontline staff to just. Know, right? What questions to ask, and then really involving those community partners. It's the whole operating model needs to shift in the right direction with everyone swimming together in order to really drive that change.

The top of the rankings based on 32 different measures of healthcare access, quality, and outcomes. While Mississippi, Texas, Nevada, and Oklahoma are the lowest performers and the deaths from all causes among women of reproductive age are the highest in southeastern states.

Amy Oliver: Just more alarming, shocking statistics that I think are important to not lose sight of.

You know, I think that the initiatives at the federal level will only help support these on the state level, but it's up to these states to really own what is going on and identify how to improve that. You know what? Might work in a southeastern state, might not resonate in a state like California or New York.

Sarah Richardson: Great points. Amy is, I always put on in my situation, my CIO hat, what conversation am I having with my peers? What am I talking to the board about? Then I'm gonna make sure that if I'm in one of those underserved population areas, that my health system can tailor women's health strategies to address the regional disparity.

That, whatever, to your point, changes in state policies that create varying landscapes for digital health implementation are made aware of for our teams and that the National health Tech solutions adapting to different state environments and needs. Because in the end of all of this, the digital tools that can track improvement and scorecard metrics become valuable and they are available so that when patients are moving around or going to different systems across state care, they may be seeking.

Is not gonna create the challenges for continuity of care.

Meeting the patients where they are. That might look different neighborhood by neighborhood in a specific area. So if we need to either educate somebody in an underserved community on how they can use their blood pressure cuff because they're at a higher risk pregnancy, whereas there's another neighborhood a couple miles down the street.

I think we have to get really targeted from how we can not only do that multi-state approach and figure out what lessons have been learned across the borders of our states. But then also just really understanding how do we hyper target that to make sure that we are meeting all of those patients where they are.

Sarah Richardson: Well, I'll take it back to a recent conversation I had with Tracy Elmer at TruCare, where this is still California, and being able to have mobile health units that are serving rural communities and even The asynchronous care options for women with challenging work schedules with ability to get to care.

They're bringing it to them in many cases, and I also love the fact that they don't ask. Certain characteristics of information that they will serve you regardless of your ability to pay. And so they've created safe spaces throughout Southern California where people can get the care that they need.

Amy Oliver: And that's just such a great example of thinking outside of the box and trying to come up with new ways to.

Sarah Richardson: If you have that patient focus group or a leaning in ability with that population is to ask them questions. When you think about patient-centered design as an example, what approaches work best when designing digital health solutions for women with diverse needs, or I would say in a healthcare desert, or how do we make sure that there's equity in the innovations rather than reinforcing some of these existing disparities?

Amy Oliver: And I think that, you know, the research and the expansion and the awareness that we've seen over the last, I dunno, handful of years, is finally making a difference. We all know that for years and years, women's health in general has just been under researched, underfunded, but now we're finally starting to see

Sarah Richardson: Couldn't agree more. And I'm always grateful that you and I both work for companies in an industry where these are conversations we're having all the time and something that's not taboo, ways that we can help other people make it comfortable to be sharing these perspectives as well. And so thank you for taking the time to share what's happening globally and locally in terms of what we can bring forward for awareness with maternal and women's health, but also keep fighting the good fight.

Amy Oliver: Alright. Well thanks so much for having me, Sarah. It was great chatting and we'll chat with you soon always. And thanks for tuning into Newsday. That's all for now.

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