Odyssey Science Innovations, LLC — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase I: NICHD

Description

Personal behaviors during pregnancy influence gestational weight gain gestational diabetes mellitus and preeclampsia in addition to developmental programming of the offspring This application is designed to assess the technical merit feasibility usability and potential commercial application of a digital platform and wellness curriculum to reduce the health risks of the mother and child during pregnancy and after delivery Currently there are no evidence based scalable and holistic digital health programs for pregnant women during and post pregnancy and the CDCandapos s Diabetes Prevention Program is contraindicated for pregnant women We propose to develop the initial eight sessions during pregnancy post pregnancy of an session digital wellness program implemented during pregnancy and months post partum when women are likely to be more receptive to engage in healthy behaviors The program translates our prior research tested team based intervention paradigm from a hardcopy curriculum with multiple in person sessions to a digital format with interactive sessions administered by the participants via the digital platform by videoconferencing Participants will receive a digital scale activity and sleep tracker and a sphygmomanometer that syncs wirelessly with the digital platform to each participantandapos s personal Dashboard account The wireless tracking and monitoring will occur across several metrics tiers of social networking functionality with time and behavior based notifications to participants to ensure program adherence The application will be accessible by mobile phone smart devices and computer to facilitate participant interaction motivation peer support and biometric and behavior monitoring Between sessions women participate in goals and engage in behavioral leaning activities related to the prior sessionandapos s learning objectives Messaging to women is based upon online platform utilization reinforcing activities long term goals and social communication Daily data derived from the digital scale blood pressure activity and sleep tracker when outside recommended parameters will immediately be seamlessly transferred to the womanandapos s EMR and healthcare providerandapos s secure and confidential fax or email Curriculum sessions will focus on a weight gain and energy balance b nutrition during pregnancy c physical activity d stress reduction e sleep hygiene and f pregnancy physiology and fetal growth Postpartum sessions include a depression prevention b breast feeding c return to healthy pre pregnancy weight via diet and physical activity d life balance and socialization All team sessions are reinforced with activities between meetings post session goals educational videogames and other digital resources including exercise and cooking instruction videos FAQs meal and snack recipes and a pregnancy wellness guide We will assess program feasibility usability resources tools tier support relevance and satisfaction of the entire platform tools and sessions an accompanying weekly activities by six teams of women team with questionnaires focus groups and web analytics In addition we will specifically assess participant usage of various application components and monitoring devices Healthcare providers will be queried about utility satisfaction and recommendations regarding patient data uploads to the EMR email or fax and perceptions of the intervention by survey A health promotion and wellness program that favorably modifies health behaviors and risk factors for excessive gestational weight gain gestational diabetes and preeclampsia and promotes a return to a healthier weight depression prevention and breast feeding after delivery fills a need for women during and after pregnancy This Phase I proposal aims to initiate a feasibility and usability assessment of a team based digital wellness platform translating our prior relevant evidence based behavioral interventions The program and resources target nutrition physical activity sleep stress and depression along with home biometric monitoring This intervention should improve the health outcomes of women during and after pregnancy benefitting the developing fetus and future of the mother and child