Wildflower Health Announces Publication of Outcomes

I am thrilled to announce that users of our Due Date Plus application were found to engage in prenatal care earlier and have fewer low-birth weight babies than non-app users. Wildflower Health’s first peer-reviewed journal article, “Impact of a Mobile Health Application on User Engagement and Pregnancy Outcomes Among Wyoming Medicaid Members,” is an original research paper published in the Journal of Telemedicine and e-Health.

This academic journal covers advances in telemedicine and places special emphasis on interventions that influence the quality, cost effectiveness, and access to healthcare. As co-author on the paper, I collaborated closely with my partners in Wyoming Medicaid and Xerox Healthcare services to get these exciting outcomes published. In the study we wanted to learn whether our smartphone-based Due Date Plus application had an impact across several outcomes of interest. We compared pregnant app users on Medicaid to pregnant non-app users on Medicaid to examine the association between app usage and pregnancy and birth outcomes. There were two statistically significant results worth highlighting:

Due Date Plus connects pregnant women to care earlier.

Due Date Plus users were 76% more likely to complete a first trimester prenatal visit compared to non-app users. This was a 22% improvement. Studies have routinely shown that early prenatal care is associated with positive pregnancy outcomes [source here] and first trimester visits are an important HEDIS measure used by more than 90% of health plans across the country. [source here]

Due Date Plus users had fewer low-birth weight infants than non-users.

App users were only 25% as likely to have a low-birth weight baby compared to non-app users. This was a 73% reduction. Pregnancy complications such as low-birth weight are huge cost drivers and this data suggests that Due Date Plus is an effective tool to help manage these costs. Public health practitioners, healthcare leaders, and, frankly, anyone who cares about the health of moms and babies should be encouraged by this data and its potential to move the needle on outcomes and demonstrate positive ROI. This study was the culmination of a two-year effort and we can’t wait to share our results with the world! Check out our official press release here.