Mayo Clinic to Study Digitized Workflows, AI-Backed Messaging to Improve Postpartum Care

Can digitizing clinical workflows and using artificial intelligence (AI)-supported, targeted short messaging services to new mothers lead to fewer complications and postpartum depression? A new pilot program between Mayo Clinic and Memora Health hopes to provide answers.

Memora Health, which focuses on virtual care delivery and complex care management, hopes the initiative will reduce the burden on clinical and administrative teams at Mayo Clinic and extend the relationship between care teams and new mothers. Memora’s care programs digitize workflows and patient communications via AI-supported messaging and established clinical and administrative processes.

The partners will track key metrics closely to assess the impact of the initiative, Memora CEO Manav Sevak told MedCity News. The pilot will measure how many patients report postpartum depression in the first six weeks after delivery so that they can be treated before symptoms become severe, as well as those who experience excess bleeding or ongoing body pain to see if interventions lead to reductions in emergency department or urgent care visits.

The program will enable postpartum care teams to proactively interact with new mothers. It allows maternal care teams to further engage and care for postpartum patients between visits and facilitates a more connected care experience.

The goal is to effectively route patient-reported symptoms and concerns to appropriate care team members. The text-based interventions can answer frequently asked questions, assess symptoms, administer postpartum depression screenings and link patients to educational resources. Meanwhile, these efforts will be supplemented with phone-based outreach, thereby expanding access to care for traditionally underserved communities, including immigrant populations, those with low socio-economic status and patients who live far from the hospital — reducing barriers to critical postpartum care.