"Mount Sinai, Healthfirst Study Postpartum Care"

Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Healthfirst and the New York Academy of Medicine have teamed up on a study to improve postpartum health outcomes for minority women. The researchers, who received a $500,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, published their preliminary results in the Maternal and Child Health Journal. Black and Hispanic women have higher rates of maternal mortality and pregnancy complications and a greater risk of developing chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes, according to the authors. To improve outcomes, Mount Sinai and Healthfirst jointly funded care management by a social worker and a care coordinator, and Healthfirst shared claims data to help Mount Sinai track outcomes. After 18 months the rate of postpartum visits among the women increased 72%. An economist from the New York Academy of Medicine will track how the intervention affected health costs. Even if the project is only cost-neutral, money could be saved "by capturing high-risk women early in life and addressing their chronic illnesses now instead of at later stages of these diseases," said lead author Elizabeth Howell, MD, MPP, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Learn more.