Latest / StartUp Health NOW Podcast / Anish Sebastian and Babyscripts Are Showing the World That a Connected Pregnancy Is a Healthier Pregnancy

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Anish Sebastian and Babyscripts Are Showing the World That a Connected Pregnancy Is a Healthier Pregnancy · StartUp Health NOW Podcast

• 0:00
  [ on-hold music] You know, the first 10 or 14 days after mom leaves the hospital, they happen to be in the biggest risk of dying.
• 0:12
  Um, so obviously having a very kind of compact program that can monitor blood pressure for high-risk pregnancies is super important because, you know, catching risk during that time, that first 14, 20 days is, is, is really will enable providers to detect risk quickly, bring the patient in, change medication, and really avoid an adverse outcome.
• 0:33
  [upbeat music] Welcome to Startup Health Now, the podcast where we talk about the entrepreneurs shaping the future of health and the health moonshots they're working to achieve.
• 0:44
  I'm Logan Plaster, editor-in-chief at Startup Health. On today's episode, I talk to Anish Sebastian, CEO and co-founder of BabyScripts.
• 0:53
  Founded by Sebastian and his business partner, Juan Pablo Segura, in 2014, BabyScripts uses connected health devices like a Bluetooth-enabled blood pressure monitor and an app to help women have better pregnancies.
• 1:05
  OBGYNs prescribe the app to their patients and get a steady stream of data, helping them intervene early in cases of high blood pressure or other complications.
• 1:15
  And moms-to-be are given the tools to communicate with their doctor throughout their pregnancy.
• 1:19
  BabyScripts has been involved in more than 200,000 pregnancies, and with every new provider partnership they sign, they open up access to high-quality pre- and postnatal care.
• 1:28
  Sebastian is a longtime member of the Startup Health family and a mentor to fellow entrepreneurs. It was a pleasure to check in on him and hear the latest from BabyScripts. Hope you enjoy the conversation.
• 1:39
  [upbeat music] Anish Sebastian, thank you for joining me for this health innovation update. Appreciate you taking a few minutes with me. Logan, always good to talk to you, man. How are you? I'm doing well.
• 1:52
  So we're talking about BabyScripts. You know, I love talking about BabyScripts partly because I know you help women, uh, who struggle with preeclampsia, and my wife was, uh, preeclamptic twice.
• 2:03
  So whenever I think about BabyScripts, it immediately hits home for me as a product that, uh, could have really been pivotal for my wife, who had emergency, uh, births twice because of this.
• 2:15
  So, uh, I mean, so that's kind of a teaser to what you do, but, but give me the, the quick flyover of what the BabyScripts product is right now.
• 2:26
  Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, our, our whole thesis or our belief is that as a country, we do a pretty crappy job of taking care of our moms. Um, that's true.
• 2:34
  Obviously, you're familiar with it through your experience. Um, you know, whether it's preeclampsia or preterm birth, um, you know, we do a subpar job and, and we also happen to spend the most amount of money.
• 2:46
  And if you are a, a minority or African American, your risks of complications and then quite frankly, death are, are, are much higher, right? So, so we think, um, we can do a lot better.
• 2:58
  And our, our, our goal is to use technology to improve the status quo.
• 3:04
  Um, and, and, you know, our, our platform really allows providers of care, so OBGYNs, midwives, to really take care outside of the four walls of the office and make a continuous real time, so we can really monitor all kinds of risks during pregnancy.
• 3:20
  Blood pressure monitoring is, you can really choose an important one, but we also cover a bunch of other stuff, including, you know, diabetes in pregnancy, some population health mestri- uh, metrics, both low and high risk.
• 3:31
  Um, and as a company, we've been around for now close to six, seven years now. We're in about 27 states or so, and, and, and through our, you know, 60-plus providers, we cover a little more than 200,000 pregnancies.
• 3:44
  So, you know, that's kind of the, the, the brief history of, of BabyScripts. Very nice. And that's 200,000 pregnancies, uh, total over your... o-over the 27 states. Uh, exactly. Yep. Yep. Very, very cool.
• 3:58
  So what is the experience like for the mom who, uh, receives, [laughs] who uses BabyScripts?
• 4:05
  You work with the OBGYN, I understand, and if they're a partner of yours, they're gonna send something to the mom, and kind of what is that experience like for her? Yeah, good question.
• 4:15
  Um, one, one of the things we do believe in pretty strongly is the importance of working with providers of care directly. So you can think about BabyScripts as a prescription for pregnancy. Mm-hmm.
• 4:25
  Starts when mom comes in for that first appointment, or really whenever they, when they see the doctor during pregnancy.
• 4:31
  And if they happen to be, um, you know, a BabyScripts provider, in addition to kind of getting your routine care, you get a prescription for BabyScripts.
• 4:39
  That prescription could be for low-risk pregnancies, high-risk pregnancies, whatever, you know, the provider thinks is appropriate. Based on the pre- prescription, we trigger a bunch of stuff.
• 4:49
  The thing that we're most known for is something called the Mommy Kit. It's a kit that we ship out to moms as, uh, to their home, and it is a connected blood pressure cuff.
• 4:58
  And through the kit and also the app that goes along with it, we're able to remotely monitor all kinds of elements of pregnancy care, right?
• 5:06
  So, and then the providers can intervene in real time as they see risks go high or risks go low, uh, and then really change the pa- uh, the care pathway for that patient.
• 5:15
  Um, so yeah, I mean, I think it, it's-- you can think of it as, as a way to kind of extend care, really provider driven, um, or a prescription, quote-unquote, for pregnancy.
• 5:24
  You've mentioned a couple of times low risk and high risk.
• 5:27
  Uh, I believe you started low risk or, or maybe that's like, uh, that would be the natural entry point for this market, but the fact that you're working with high-risk pregnancies is a pretty big deal, is it not? Yeah.
• 5:40
  No, absolutely. I mean, I think, you know, ro- low risk is kind of where we started, right?
• 5:44
  Um, but, you know, we think that to really move the needle on quality and outcomes, you start-- you have to kind of move up the risk paradigm.
• 5:51
  A, a good example of, uh, one of the programs that we have for high risk is the works that we do in postpartum hypertension specifically.
• 5:59
  You know, the first 10 or 14 days after mom leaves the hospital, they happen to be in the biggest risk of dying.Um, so obviously having a very kind of compact program that can monitor blood pressure for high-risk pregnancies is super important because, you know, catching risk during that time, that first 14, 20 days, is, is, is really will, uh, enable providers to detect risk quickly, bring the patient in, change medication, and really avoid an adverse outcome.
• 6:29
  So high risk is definitely like a, like a great place for us to sort of spend time on. Um, but, you know, it, it's not just h- postpartum hypertension. It's also all kinds of elements of high-risk pregnancy.
• 6:40
  Talk to me about some of the responses you've gotten from OBs using this, uh, how it's compared with the standard of care prior patients, their responses, the responses to the, the ability to, I assume, text their OB really easily, have their data, uh, collected seamlessly.
• 6:58
  How have people responded to that? Yeah, no, I mean, it's, it's an interesting question, right? And I think, you know, pre- and post-COVID has been two very different narratives there.
• 7:08
  Um, but, you know, I'll start with kind of the pre-COVID realm a little bit.
• 7:11
  Um, I think if you look at, you know, the, the patients that we engage with, these are young moms, typically between the ages of 18 and 35, that are engaged in their care because there's another life involved here.
• 7:24
  Pregnancy, by its very nature, sort of is, is a defined time period where there's a lot going on.
• 7:29
  So from a patient standpoint, there's a huge willingness and interest in looking at technology as a way to engage and be empowered in their own care pathway.
• 7:41
  So our providers, our doctors, midwives, um, kind of see that and go, "You know what?
• 7:45
  Like, let me leverage that and use tools, um, that might be a little bit more kind of on the newer end to amplify my current care protocol," right?
• 7:54
  So that's why I think, you know, pregnancy and prenatal and postpartum care ends up being sort of this great, uh, pathway for, um, you know, really implementing digital tools.
• 8:05
  Um, we hear from patients all the time, whether it's through social media or just inbound, that, "Hey, you know, this is such a great, awesome tool for my pregnancy, um, and I'm, and I'm so glad this exists."
• 8:16
  Um, and on the providers, I mean, I mean, this is, this is something that, that we've gone on a little bit of a journey on, but at the end of the day, you know, I think, you know, it, our providers are very interested in engaging moms, and our platform really enables that.
• 8:28
  So we've seen a huge uptick on that. Um, certainly, you know, pre-COVID, but obviously the game completely changed, um, you know, once COVID sort of hit. Yeah, let's talk about that a little more specifically.
• 8:41
  Um, how did that- Yeah... shift, shift your market? D- you know, there's a whole spectrum of responses in digital health. Some companies saw 1000x adoption.
• 8:51
  Uh, some saw deals really go on ice as hospital systems said, "I don't wanna sign any- anything new. I don't wanna spend any new money," uh, in the springtime.
• 9:02
  Um, what kind of responses did you get in the spring of last year? Yeah, no, I mean, uh, a really good question. Um, you know, you look at pregnancy, it, it's not an elective procedure, right?
• 9:14
  You can't sort of punt it down, unfortunately or fortunately, right? Um, so
• 9:19
  literally after March thir- March 13th or 14th when the nationwide lockdown was announced, um, practices and providers across the nation overnight had to think about how they can implement prenatal care through digital modalities.
• 9:35
  And, you know, I was, you know, sitting there and going, "This is what we've been working on for the last five years," right? So- Yeah...
• 9:42
  um, uh, you know, we saw very clearly an incredible surge in demand, particularly on the remote patient monitoring piece, right?
• 9:51
  Um, how do I keep moms safe at home, socially distant, but still deliver the appropriate level of care?
• 9:58
  And that's really the, the question we've been trying to answer for, you know, pretty much since day one of our company. So, um, we, we saw quite, quite a huge surge, um, especially in the early days of COVID.
• 10:08
  Um, now, it, it's, it's absolutely true that, you know, as a result of all of the elective procedures being held off, um, you know, there are financial challenges that our health systems are going through.
• 10:19
  So we have all kinds of programs now to help navigate that. Um, but I think- To help them- But both- To help, to help them afford what they need... help them afford it. Yeah, exactly. Got it. Exactly.
• 10:27
  So if, if, especially in our underserved populations, you know, we are either working with payers directly or, um, we're offering programs that allows, um, providers to kind of deploy this quickly and not really being worried about the financial impact for us.
• 10:43
  'Cause, you know, for us right now, we wanna, um, you know, push our technology out there, have people use it, and not necessarily worry about sort of the financial constraint, um, to, to get going on this, right?
• 10:54
  So- So, so when you- But we've definitely seen- So when you say that, you're talking about, like, maybe a smaller practice, an independent practice, an OB practice in a, uh, somewhere that knows they need a solution, but they're feeling the pinch from, from COVID, not...
• 11:09
  versus a health- big health system, a big payer, different- Yeah, it's, it's-... conversations... it's definitely, um...
• 11:16
  I, I would say it's, uh, we've definitely seen, um, kind of financial stresses, both at the small practice level, um, but also, um, you know, some of the bigger systems too.
• 11:25
  A- and maybe this manifests itself in not having the implementation resources to take the program live, less so kind of just sure, like, straight up, like, you know, budgetary shortfalls. Yeah.
• 11:38
  Um, but, you know, interestingly, the payers, we haven't seen too much of it there, right?
• 11:44
  'Cause payers actually are, are looking for programs like this, and that's another area where we've seen some good growth, which is just the traction that we've seen on the payer side.
• 11:51
  Um, the payers are looking for, uh, u- using this sort of really tipping point that we're seeing as a way to sort of encourage the adoption of digital tools
• 12:01
  and also seeing the, the, the impact of that from a quality and outcome standpoint.
• 12:05
  W- speaking of which, what are some of the sort of killer stats that you use if you're talking to a payer, if you're talking about lowering cost, improving quality? What are some of those top line numbers?Yeah.
• 12:18
  I mean, I think, you know, um, from a, from a pregnancy standpoint, uh, the big things we hammer home are the ability to reduce readmission risk in the postpartum time period, the ability to re- uh, improve quality and outcomes from an overall quality perspective in pregnancy.
• 12:33
  So this includes everything from, you know, looking at attendance to prenatal care, uh, impact on HEDIS measures, gestational weight gain, you know, so on and so forth.
• 12:43
  So you can think about all the kind of the core milestones and metrics, prenatal and postpartum care. You know, we have data, in some cases, um, scientifically validated data that, that prove this.
• 12:54
  And then, of course, this, this is kind of the table stake starting point, we start looking at engagement and sa- satisfaction. And across the board, we do good there, right?
• 13:02
  So, uh, but that, to, to us, that's just a starting point. If we can't engage and satisfy and deliver a better experience, you know, let's not even, let's not even have the conversation.
• 13:10
  But then you take it one step further, you look at complications in pregnancy and quality measures in pregnancies, and that's where we're seeing, um, some very positive movement. Um, are you able to give any specifics?
• 13:22
  I'm curious, when you say positive movement, uh, if I'm a consumer, I'm thinking, "Okay, how positive?" Is this a, a 0.01% better than normal, or are we really seeing the needle get moved? Yeah.
• 13:33
  I mean, I think the, the, the big thing I, I'd point to is the ability to reduce readmission risk, uh, in the postpartum time period.
• 13:41
  Um, we've actually done kind of a, a, a study down in North Carolina that's actually demonstrated some of that, right? Mm-hmm. And it's in the process of being published right now.
• 13:50
  The other thing that I'll also point to in the antenatal setting is the ability to identify risk quicker.
• 13:56
  So if mom's at home and spikes a blood pressure, you know, kind of intervening in real time as opposed to waiting three, four, six weeks and bringing them in.
• 14:05
  So we have multiple studies now that have demonstrated the ability to kind of get to that patient quicker and risk quicker.
• 14:12
  Uh, now I'm often cautious when we talk about statistical significance because of the, you know, the sample size and those nuances. Got it.
• 14:19
  But, you know, our, our, our studies are, are, you know, already demonstrating the ability to intervene early and the impact of that. Yeah.
• 14:27
  How do you, how do you feel like COVID has changed pregnancy, uh, the way that women will go through this process a year from now, two years from now? I mean, is it...
• 14:37
  Do you believe this is ushering in something new that, that really can't get rolled back, or do you think that things will go back to normal?
• 14:46
  Um, I think, I think for sure that there is gonna be a lasting impact of the, the kind of the overnight change that's happened in the care protocols, right? Now, the question is, you know, to what extent, right?
• 15:01
  And there are a lot of variables that kind of face, uh, you know, kind of go into it, including, um, reimbursement and business models, you know, so on and so forth.
• 15:10
  Um, you know, and specifically in pregnancy, we're talking about young tech-savvy consumers here. There's, uh, an absolute sort of need, um, and desire to adopt these technologies from their side.
• 15:24
  And again, it ends up being kind of a, a, a great way to engage patients, right? And the other thing, you know, I'll point out is that, you know, if I'm, if I'm a large health system or if I'm a large provider,
• 15:35
  I know if I engage the mom, I'm able to kind of get husband, son, nephew, all into the health system down the road. Mm-hmm. Right? So just from pure consumer marketing standpoint, there's a lot of benefits there.
• 15:47
  Um, but at the end of the day, I mean, I think, you know, um, what we're seeing is that, uh, providers that normally would be super hesitant, you know, these late adopters, um, that would say, "You know what?
• 15:58
  Like, I just went through a big EMR implementation. The last thing is, I wanna do right now is implement virtual care," they're coming back in and saying, "Hey, what do you got? I'm interested in this.
• 16:07
  Let me think about the best way to change my practice protocols to meet this need right now." And I don't think that's gonna change, um, you know, even once we sort of get out the whole COVID thing now.
• 16:17
  How complicated, uh, how time consuming is the BabyScripts rollout, the implementation process? Yeah. Um, and that's also an area where we, we've seen, uh, we've also just done a lot of changes on our own side.
• 16:30
  You know, pre-COVID, we would have teams that would go on site, train, you know, get people onboarded,
• 16:37
  and it would take, you know, anywhere between, if it's a pretty complicated, sophisticated, you know, integration, uh, integration base, multi-site rollout, it could take 8, 10, 12 weeks.
• 16:47
  Um, but post-COVID, we've gone all virtual. Um, that's been pretty effective. Um, and we've seen a go live as quickly as, like, two weeks to something, you know, four, six weeks in nature, right?
• 16:58
  And again, th- this is-- that's remarkable just because, like, we know all of the protocols and the workflows we're changing to really make it happen, right?
• 17:08
  So that goes to the ability, um, of our providers to sort of embrace change management and also all the tooling that we have in place, um, to providers sort of go live with this kind of stuff, right?
• 17:19
  So definitely seen a pretty remarkable improvement there. Interesting.
• 17:24
  You mentioned a second ago, I wanted to return to this idea that BabyScripts could be a, an entryway, a gateway to getting families, uh, into a health system, into a payer, onto a digital health platform.
• 17:39
  Uh, is that kind of a, is that kind of a vision for you? Is that where you see this going, uh, as, as a, as a gateway? Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, from, from our standpoint,
• 17:51
  you know, you start looking at, uh, what, what does it mean to engage a mom, whether it's a first time pregnancy or a second time pregnancy.
• 17:59
  Um, you know, n- not only are you able to start building a relationship with, with that patient at that point, a lot of times, you know, especially for uncomplicated low-risk cases, the first time, um, you know, a mom might have a full-blown interaction with the health system might be during a delivery, right?
• 18:19
  That's entirely possible. So it's really that first impression that we're looking at here, right?
• 18:23
  Um, so we have a, a, a bunch of tooling that we've built to, um, allow our providers toTake advantage of what we call consumer insights or insights into what's going on with this patient and engage them, right?
• 18:36
  So that could be everything from, "Hey, you know what? Like, they haven't fully signed up for a birthing class," right? Let me kind of send them a note saying, "Hey, we have all these options."
• 18:46
  To something even much more kind of, you know, downstream as, "Hey, you haven't...
• 18:51
  It doesn't look like you have a pediatrician, so let's make sure that we refer you to a pediatrician that we think would be great for you, and let's take it from there," right?
• 19:00
  And then what happens in the postpartum setting, you just keep adding down that, down, uh, down that path, right?
• 19:06
  Think about referrals to, you know, whether it's pediatric care, general OBGYN care, or even primary care, right? Especially if there's some risk, they're hypertensive, that needs to continue on.
• 19:18
  Um, so really there's a lot going on, uh, during those, uh, 40 weeks, you know. And then obviously the time in the postpartum, uh, the post- postpartum time period.
• 19:27
  Um, so, you know, our, our platform and the tools that we have really help, help providers sort of like take that as the anchor point and then build into that next phase of what's going on with the patient.
• 19:38
  That's very, very interesting.
• 19:40
  Yeah, I mean, healthcare, um, there's periods of l- of time in your life where it seems like you don't interact with the system, and then you have small children and it feels like you're, you're very, very aware- Yeah.
• 19:51
  Yeah... uh, of who your doctor is and when your last visit was. So yeah, the, so moving from pregnancy care to pediatric care and netting all of that together makes a ton of sense.
• 20:04
  Um, I have sort of a left field question, uh, talking to the person in my house who's actually been pregnant multiple times.
• 20:12
  Um, I, I asked her, I told her about BabyScripts and I asked her what she would ask you if she were interviewing you, um, as, as a mom. And she said, uh, "How do you maintain...
• 20:24
  How do you introduce technology to such a degree into this process, um, while still allowing for the magic of pregnancy?"
• 20:35
  So there's a lot of people th- th- there's, you know, a lot of people who wanna maintain the, the natural side of pregnancy, and, uh, obviously they don't want to introduce, uh, unnecessary risks.
• 20:47
  But just the very, at the very highest level, sort of in- increasing the technology around pregnancy versus, uh, sort of maintaining the sort of the natural magical side of it. W- what are your thoughts on that?
• 21:02
  Yeah, no, and it's actually a really good, really good insight and a good question, right?
• 21:07
  At the end of the day, I mean, I think we look at technology not as some kind of a silver bullet that's gonna just, you know, replace all kinds of care or completely sort of put things on autopilot.
• 21:19
  We look at, uh, technology as a way to empower our moms to get more involved in their care. Mm-hmm.
• 21:25
  Um, and actually sort of, you know, wh- when, when a mom is at home and putting on a blood pressure cuff and taking her blood pressure, there's sort of a, a natural sort of empowerment that comes with it.
• 21:36
  And, and then the other piece is also educating on them, well, you know, what are the signs and symptoms, the warning signs that they need to look out for. Um, so that, that's one element of it.
• 21:45
  And then, you know, there, there are elements of prenatal care and postpartum care that will never be truly solved by pregnancy, right? Uh, so by technology, sorry.
• 21:56
  And I think we're, we're the first people to, to, um, uh, to, to sort of recognize that, right?
• 22:01
  Um, an example might be that, that connection that the do- a patient might make to the providers when they're listening to the baby's heartbeat, right?
• 22:10
  That's something that you can't just replicate by doing some cool tech stuff, right?
• 22:14
  Um, so for us it's not, you know, how can technology be the be all, end all, but rather what is the balance between high tech, high tech and high touch that optimizes care and outcomes, right?
• 22:28
  And, and that's been sort of a journey that we've now been on.
• 22:32
  You know, so, so for us it's, it's more sort of like, you know what, like instead of having a, a packet that you get on that first appointment that's entirely pa- uh, paper, the new well-being packet, if that's on your smartphone and you can just look up while you're at a sushi restaurant whether or not you can eat a piece of tuna, that's a good thing, right?
• 22:49
  That's helpful. But to the extent that moms are feeling more detached from their care team, that's not helpful at all. We wanna build that trust and we wanna enhance that trust, not reduce it.
• 22:59
  So there's, there's sort of a gentle balance that we need to strike. And I think the, the last thing that, that, you know, I'll add on, on that is, is,
• 23:08
  uh, one of the things that we focus on is where are there kind of gaps in what providers and, and patients are doing right now? I'll give you an example.
• 23:17
  Um, we know that maternal mental health is sort of a, a, a, you know, a, a gap in, in, in overall pregnancy care. Same thing's also true for how breastfeeding and lactation is handled, right?
• 23:28
  So it's how can we build tooling to help with that where there are these gaps right now as opposed to sort of like replacing things that already exist, right?
• 23:37
  So that's kind of how we look at it and, and which is why, you know, one of the things we are, are not gonna do is go consumer, 'cause it, it's one of those things that, that is important to us, is to maintain the, the sanctity of that relationship and then amplify it, right?
• 23:52
  Very interesting. Uh, the note I wanna end on is, you know, as you know, at StartUp Health we really care a lot about health moonshots.
• 23:59
  Obviously, you're working on the children's health and the women's health moonshot, but I also am really, um, moved by the ability of BabyScripts and this remote monitoring to improve access, the access to care health moonshot.
• 24:14
  And, and I, and I want you to kind of paint a picture for me, um, for if you were to look out into the future, um, how you could see, uh, maybe how you, you dream of BabyScripts opening up access to, to moms who just really right now do not have adequate care.
• 24:33
  So if you think about, um, you know, not just-Keeping somebody out of, you know, from bouncing back, but really bringing high quality care to someone who didn't have anything before.
• 24:43
  So, like, when you think about those communities, um, and what this type of care and what BabyScripts could bring to them, I don't know, I, I'd love for you to just kind of paint me a picture of what that could look like.
• 24:55
  Yeah.
• 24:56
  Um, let me first start by saying, uh, you know, underscoring something you brought up, which is, you know, it- it's our belief that if you look at kind of the existing prenatal care journey, it's probably ideal for anywhere between 10 to 30% of moms out there.
• 25:13
  For, for everyone else, there's some major cl- care navigation access issue, no question about it. Um, you know, i- if you... I'll give you an example.
• 25:21
  If you happen to have shift work, right, for you to take time off to go to a prenatal appointment for 10, 15 minutes and go back might not be a very feasible option.
• 25:33
  D- and certainly not a f- option doing that 14 times in a six, seven-month time period, right? So, you know, our, our goal is, is to sort of look at access in kind of a much more sort of holistic manner- Mm-hmm...
• 25:44
  and, and really sort of ask, you know, what can technology do to increase those touch points and then to really amplify that care, right? So if you look at, um, you know, blood pressure monitoring, right?
• 25:57
  We know that's a very important thing. I mean, you know from, just from your experience, it, it's such an important thing when it comes to, you know, prenatal care.
• 26:05
  So if we can empower the mom to take blood pressure home, that's a huge win. I mean, you know, we hear stories from moms all the time around, "You know what?
• 26:12
  Like, this is such a cool thing," especially our second-time moms, to be perfectly honest, when they come back and go, "I wish I had this during my first pregnancy. It would've been a, been a big help," right?
• 26:21
  So we see that quite a bit. But then you take that piece and apply that to every- everywhere else. Now, we start to take the existing scaffold of prenatal care and sort of almost flip it on its head, right?
• 26:34
  Which is why not take a little bit of like a meet the patient where they are approach as opposed to this cookie cutter, come in 12, 13, 14 times and see what happens, right?
• 26:44
  [laughs] Um, and, and there's all kinds of components to it.
• 26:47
  The other piece when it comes to access, and, you know, admittedly, this is part of the problem, and I don't necessarily think tech is the be all, end all solution here, is we look at the mom and the OBGYN as kind of the singular relationship, when it should be the mom and the entire care team.
• 27:05
  So it's, it's, it's multifaceted, right?
• 27:07
  So you think about is there, uh, everything from, uh, a think about our community health organizations, think about our midwifery practices, think about doulas out there, think about, you know, nutritionists or mental health professionals.
• 27:19
  You know, it's, it's not just one, a one-to-one relationship. It's a one-to-many relationship. Mm-hmm.
• 27:26
  And, you know, there are some things technology can do to help with that, better care coordination, and we certainly do some of that.
• 27:31
  But at the end of the day, I mean, that's also, like, a larger, I think, societal shift that we need to go through to kind of get there, right? So, um, I can talk for the next, like, three hours on access.
• 27:40
  It's something that I think we're, we're pretty passionate about. And, and let's just...
• 27:43
  I mean, one thing I have to mention is that, you know, access is, is if you happen to be a minority, if you happen to live in rural America, um, you know, your, your problems of access are compounded, right?
• 27:56
  'Cause we know the system's not, not built really for them. It's built really for kind of an upper class, stay-at-home mom, to be perfectly honest with you, right? That's kind of what it's sort of set up for, right?
• 28:07
  So we know access to care issues are compounded when we get there, and last point on access is that the only thing that we also we do know is that there are a lot of these hospitals that are shutting down because labor and delivery ends up being a loss leader, right?
• 28:20
  There's not a lot of money in just delivering routine babies. So as a result of that, you know, th- you know, there might be some major issues in having a mom just getting to a hospital itself, right?
• 28:31
  So, you know, a lot of what we're trying to do is also help kind of make sure that you have a delivery hospital and you can get there and, and kind of have the connection points, right?
• 28:38
  So, um, access is, is a pretty- Yeah... important issue. It's a major one. Um, but yeah, I can keep talking, but I'll, I'll pause there. Yeah. I mean, you and I have, I mean, you live in New York.
• 28:48
  Uh, I, I've lived in New York. Uh,
• 28:51
  if you live in the city, you, you could live on the same block as your OB, and yet there's so much of America where you might have to drive an hour, two hours, even three hours to really qualified healthcare.
• 29:03
  Um, big swaths of, of the country.
• 29:05
  And so just, um, I just applaud that you're building a s- a, a system where, where somebody who is, is that far away can all of a sudden start getting really high quality, high touch care, um, and give them that confidence, give them that, uh, surety that they're taking care of their, their unborn child.
• 29:28
  So- Yeah. And, and, and listen, I mean, I think, I think you, you think about... Yeah, and then certainly if you take it to the global level, right?
• 29:35
  Um, you know, pregnancy by its very nature isn't a, quote-unquote, "medical condition." Right? Right. Um, it's part of the miracle of life, right? That's what it is.
• 29:46
  Um, so there's a lot that a mom can do just totally on her own to just be on top of it and just, you know, like, kind of know what to look out for, right?
• 29:55
  Where we do need those connection points and the access to care, all that kind of stuff, is, is when we have something going on from everything's going perfectly okay, and now things are risking out, right?
• 30:05
  Uh, preeclampsia is a good example. There's others too, and we know that that's about 30% of the pregnancies out there, right?
• 30:12
  So a, a lot of what we kind of think about access is if moms are engaged, compliant, or connected, sort of, you know, give them that, that awesome job and keep going.
• 30:22
  It's more sort of identifying these items that sort of flare out, those risk signals, and then intervening as quickly as possible.
• 30:29
  So not to kind of go into a systems approach there, but, you know, globally, that, that's, that's a big problem, right?
• 30:34
  So where there isn't that kind of healthcare infrastructure, how do you, how do you do that, you know? So, um, yeah. Awesome. Aneesh, I appreciate you taking the time for this.
• 30:42
  I pr- I, I'm really, uh, I'm proud that BabyScripts is building this network, that you've responded to this COVID moment.
• 30:49
  It really is, uh, your moment to, to, I think to really to break out and to provide this kind of remote care service where it's needed most. So, uh, I hope this is a real catalyst.
• 31:00
  But, um, Aneesh, thank you for, for your continued work. [upbeat music] StartUp Health invests in health transformers from around the world who are committed to achieving audacious health moonshots.
• 31:18
  If you wanna learn how you can join this community of entrepreneurs, or if you wanna connect with one of our 330 companies, go to startuphealth.com. Thanks for listening to "StartUp Health NOW." We'll be back next week.
• 31:30
  [upbeat music]