5.6 Maternal Health Use Case

In March 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the United States’ maternal mortality statistics for 2020, and the results illustrate the continuation of a disturbing trend. Alarmingly, the overall maternal mortality rate—defined by the CDC and World Health Organization as “the number of deaths from any cause related to or aggravated by pregnancy or its management (excluding accidental or incidental causes) during pregnancy and childbirth or within 421 days of termination of pregnancy”—increased from 2019 to 2020 and continues to increase substantially. This increase is driven by worsening maternal health outcomes, which have only become more disparate: Black women are three times as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes as white women. Maternal mortality in the U.S. far outstrips that of other industrialized nations.

These statistics paint a shocking picture of the risk faced by Black women and people giving birth. Each person represented in the CDC’s statistics is a life lost too soon, and likely a death that could have been prevented. Now more than ever, we must act to end the maternal health crisis in America—a country that spends more per capita on health care than any other nation in the world—and create a reality where no person fears for her life following a pregnancy. Use cases designed to leverage ADT notifications for people who are pregnant or giving birth may enable information exchange that enables care resources to be directed equitably to ensure improved maternal health outcomes across the U.S.

Automated distribution of ADT notifications regarding people giving birth has the potential to be a valuable part of a comprehensive response to this crisis, including addressing the social determinants of health, supporting access to maternal mental health services, improving data collection, and so much more. Although funding for activities that improve maternal health remains necessary to ensure resources are available to address the Black Maternal Health crisis once and for all, enabling health care providers to receive the right information at the right time could have a substantial impact on postpartum health. This Implementation Guide specifies inclusion of key data elements that support delivering the right information at the right time to the right people to trigger interventions that may lead to improved material health outcomes.

Several conformance constraints have been included in the IG to facilitate Maternal Health use cases. In section 5.4, data elements relevant to the Maternal Health use case have been tagged with a special maternal health symbol following the element name.

Source: https://tcf.org/content/commentary/worsening-u-s-maternal-health-crisis-three-graphs/

During the Public Comment period DirectTrust will perform outreach to engage industry groups representing Maternal Health, Obstetrics, and Newborn Health care such as the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (https://www.acog.org/) , the American Academy of Family Physicians (https://www.aafp.org/home.html), and the American College of Nurse-Midwives (http://www.midwife.org/) to solicit their participation in providing input on the guidance contained in this appendix. If comments are received during the Public Comment period this sentence may be replaced by additional input provided from these groups.