Key lessons we’ve learned at Wildflower over more than a decade of building, evolving, and growing in this space: Follow the Money (Yes, It’s Complicated in Healthcare) -- Stay Focused, But Make Room to Grow -- Dream Big, Stay Practical. More than anything, it’s important to stay tapped into your passion and purpose for fixing our broken healthcare system and how it impacts women’s health, quality of life, and longevity. It is not a journey for the faint of heart, but it’s a fight worth fighting that these lessons learned help spark and sustain the next wave of women’s health innovators.

There are structural challenges in the healthcare system that make innovating in women’s health difficult. But unlike broader societal problems, these structural challenges can be mitigated for innovators who adopt business models and solution sets that overcome the challenges to unlock value and growth in women’s health transformation. After years of working in women’s care, four challenges stand out for me that should not be underestimated when building a women’s health business model.

Despite the success of Wildflower and that of many other innovative women’s health companies, I can’t help but feel that we aren’t doing enough as an industry to fulfill the promise of healthcare innovation for women. As an industry, we have yet to radically transform the experience, quality and affordability of women’s healthcare. There’s no doubt that working in women’s health requires grit, creative problem solving, and commitment to collaboration. It also requires being clear-eyed about the very real challenges we face. Recognizing our challenges and setbacks isn’t pessimism, it’s just realism.

Healthcare organizations are increasingly being held accountable for the health outcomes of patients. Accountable care – or value-based care – offers the promise of better collaboration among care partners and more personalized care plans for patients, particularly in maternity care. Wildflower Health’s CEO & Founder Leah Sparks joined Atlantic Medical Group’s OBGYN and Ambulatory Director Fatima Naqvi to discuss where and how accountable care plays a role. We’re breaking down some key points.

The role of the Health Coach in a maternity journey is providing key learnings and insightful opportunities. Wildflower augments our digital capabilities by providing Health Coaches and Advocates, who serve as an extension of clinical teams and as the human touch that complements our platform. No matter how Coaches connect with patients - digitally, telephonically, immediately, scheduled - building rapport is at the core of the relationship.

An important part of improving maternal health outcomes within a given population is being proactive and staying ahead of complications that can lead to worse, and more costly, outcomes for mom and baby. Traditional methods for stratifying risk in healthcare aren’t dynamic or comprehensive enough to ensure success. Here’s how Wildflower approaches risk stratification in maternity care, and what we’ve learned from our model.