MommaConnect: A project on postpartum depression and its impact on maternal mental and infant health

The MommaConnect project is rooted in the compelling research and statistics surrounding postpartum depression (PPD) and its impact on maternal mental health and infant outcomes. PPD affects approximately 1 in 5 women, with higher rates observed among African American/Black (AA/B) women after giving birth. The adverse effects of untreated PPD include chronic and treatment-resistant depression, functional impairment, dysfunctional family relationships, and increased suicide risk in mothers. Furthermore, PPD negatively affects mother-infant interaction, leading to decreased attention to infant safety, reduced breastfeeding rates, and poor infant developmental outcomes. Infants of mothers with PPD are at significant risk for long-term cognitive, emotional, and neurobehavioral issues. Access to specialized mental healthcare for AA/B women with PPD is limited, exacerbating healthcare disparities. MommaConnect addresses these challenges by offering evidence-based therapies, such as Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) and Mother-Baby Interaction Therapy (MBI), targeting both mothers with PPD and their infants. By leveraging a tailored mHealth platform, MommaConnect improves treatment accessibility, reduces mental health stigma, and addresses social determinants of health. It provides a comprehensive and innovative approach to perinatal mental health, aiming to enhance therapy sessions, facilitate ongoing monitoring and support, and ultimately improve outcomes for AA/B mothers and their infants. MBC is one of only three programs that target intensive mental health treatment among low-income postpartum women of color. MommaConnect’s innovative features include:  ● MommaConnect combines evidence-based therapies for maternal mental health and mother-infant interaction.  ● MommaConnect utilizes a customized digital platform for remote psychotherapy and support.  ● MommaConnect overcomes access barriers by offering online/offline capabilities and targeting low-income postpartum women (African American/Black mothers with PPD).  ● MommaConnect enables patient data collection and promotes collaborative treatment decisions between clinicians and patients.

MommaConnect for mothers

The MommaConnect project is rooted in the compelling research and statistics surrounding postpartum depression (PPD) and its impact on maternal mental health and infant outcomes. PPD affects approximately 1 in 5 women, with higher rates observed among African American/Black (AA/B) women after giving birth. The adverse effects of untreated PPD include chronic and treatment-resistant depression, functional impairment, dysfunctional family relationships, and increased suicide risk in mothers. Furthermore, PPD negatively affects mother-infant interaction, leading to decreased attention to infant safety, reduced breastfeeding rates, and poor infant developmental outcomes. Infants of mothers with PPD are at significant risk for long-term cognitive, emotional, and neurobehavioral issues. Access to specialized mental healthcare for AA/B women with PPD is limited, exacerbating healthcare disparities. MommaConnect addresses these challenges by offering evidence-based therapies, such as Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) and Mother-Baby Interaction Therapy (MBI), targeting both mothers with PPD and their infants. By leveraging a tailored mHealth platform, MommaConnect improves treatment accessibility, reduces mental health stigma, and addresses social determinants of health. It provides a comprehensive and innovative approach to perinatal mental health, aiming to enhance therapy sessions, facilitate ongoing monitoring and support, and ultimately improve outcomes for AA/B mothers and their infants. MBC is one of only three programs that target intensive mental health treatment among low-income postpartum women of color. MommaConnect’s innovative features include: MommaConnect combines evidence-based therapies for maternal mental health and mother-infant interaction. MommaConnect utilizes a customized digital platform for remote psychotherapy and support. MommaConnect overcomes access barriers by offering online/offline capabilities and targeting low-income postpartum women (African American/Black mothers with PPD). MommaConnect enables the collection of patient data and promotes collaborative treatment decisions between clinicians and patients.

EmBRACE: Empower NICU – A Bridge to Resources for Adjusting and Coping with Emotions

Annually, 15% of U.S. births result in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) hospitalization.  The extreme emotional strain of parenting an infant in the fast-paced medicalized NICU settings can be detrimental to mental health and functioning, with up to 70% of NICU parents experiencing depression and severe anxiety. Moreover, parents experience chronic stress and trauma from the day-to-day threats in the NICU, putting them at risk for posttraumatic stress disorder. Addressing parental mental health and sequelae is critical given the potentially devastating consequences for parents and children, such as significantly impaired parent-infant interactions and attachment, infant development, and parent-provider interactions. Despite the clear need, many NICUs do not address parent mental health needs as a universal standard of care. Approximately 70% of NICU parents are not routinely screened or identified for mental health symptoms and thus do not receive the mental health services they need, creating notable health disparities. Experts and emerging research recommend a Standards of Care embedded in the NICU that includes universal screening, ongoing mental health monitoring, psychoeducation, and a stepped-care approach to best serve NICU parents that optimizes and tailors services based on the unique needs of the parent. Unfortunately, widespread implementation of a clinically practical system based on expert recommendations has not been achieved. We propose to develop a mHealth app entitled Empower NICU – A Bridge to Resources for Adjusting and Coping with Emotions (EmBRACE) to provide: 1. Universal mental health screening while giving NICU parents control over when and where assessments are completed; 2. Ongoing mental health monitoring using a set of quick, daily assessments (via ecological momentary assessment) and weekly screenings; 3. Customized microlearning education (e.g., 1-3 minute videos) tailored to assessment results and referrals in a stepped-care approach; and 4. A sustainable contingency management approach to increase parent compliance with assessments, microlearning, and referral follow-up.

PRECARE: Platform to Recognize and Evaluate Children for Age-Appropriate Response and Early Detection of Delays

Developmental screening is crucial for early identification and intervention of developmental delays (DD), yet over 63% of babies in the US do not receive developmental screening, and less than 10% of those with DD receive appropriate intervention. Furthermore, evidence suggests only 50% of pediatricians use a formal developmental screening tool, with most prompting parents for concerns. Pediatricians have limited data points (e.g., limited information on a baby’s developmental history) with a small window to complete comprehensive risk assessment during “well-baby” visits. Finally, relying on parents for identifying DD is also a challenge. Parents face multiple barriers such as lack of general knowledge about child development, recall bias, and lack of tools for longitudinal tracking of developmental milestones, leaving them ill-equipped to properly observe and raise concerns. These challenges have contributed to underdetection of DD. We propose to fully design, develop, and pilot test a multi-purpose baby monitoring system and a mobile app to educate parents about child development, flag potential motor, speech, and social indicators of DD, and facilitate clinical data sharing between parents and pediatricians. The mHealth platform, called Platform to Recognize and Evaluate Children for Age-Appropriate Response and Early Detection of Delays (PRECARE), will be designed as an attachment to baby gyms and mobiles for continuous and ubiquitous baby monitoring while serving as a diagnostic aid for pediatricians during well-child visits.

MommaConnect

The MommaConnect project is rooted in the compelling research and statistics surrounding postpartum depression (PPD) and its impact on maternal mental health and infant outcomes. PPD affects approximately 1 in 5 women, with higher rates observed among African American/Black (AA/B) women after giving birth. The adverse effects of untreated PPD include chronic and treatment-resistant depression, functional impairment, dysfunctional family relationships, and increased suicide risk in mothers. Furthermore, PPD negatively affects mother-infant interaction, leading to decreased attention to infant safety, reduced breastfeeding rates, and poor infant developmental outcomes. Infants of mothers with PPD are at significant risk for long-term cognitive, emotional, and neurobehavioral issues. Access to specialized mental healthcare for AA/B women with PPD is limited, exacerbating healthcare disparities. MommaConnect addresses these challenges by offering evidence-based therapies, such as Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) and Mother-Baby Interaction Therapy (MBI), targeting both mothers with PPD and their infants. By leveraging a tailored mHealth platform, MommaConnect improves treatment accessibility, reduces mental health stigma, and addresses social determinants of health. It provides a comprehensive and innovative approach to perinatal mental health, aiming to enhance therapy sessions, facilitate ongoing monitoring and support, and ultimately improve outcomes for AA/B mothers and their infants. MBC is one of only three programs that target intensive mental health treatment among low-income postpartum women of color. MommaConnect’s innovative features include: ● MommaConnect combines evidence-based therapies for maternal mental health and mother-infant interaction. ● MommaConnect utilizes a customized digital platform for remote psychotherapy and support. ● MommaConnect overcomes access barriers by offering online/offline capabilities and targeting low-income postpartum women (African American/Black mothers with PPD). ● MommaConnect enables patient data collection and promotes collaborative treatment decisions between clinicians and patients. 

Expanding Research and Recruitment by Engaging Adults through Community Health Workers (eREACH)

The African American/Black (AA/B) older adult population is projected to triple and will account for 12.8% of older adults by 2060. Additionally, they are disproportionately affected by chronic conditions such as dementia (up to twice), hypertension (75% versus between 40-55% for White men and women), and diabetes (13.2% versus 7.6% Whites in one study). Risk factors such as lack of access to healthcare, education, transportation, and living in distressed neighborhoods in minority communities (i.e., social determinants of health) have led to poor health outcomes and health inequities. One approach using community health workers (CHWs) shows effectiveness across multiple settings and chronic conditions for bridging the gaps in health disparities by building trust, improving screening and referral processes, and expanding communication and health information delivery to AA/B older adults. However, scaling effective CHW programs through continuous enrollment and engagement of AA/B older adults needs to be improved to address the increasing caseloads and limited funding. We propose an innovative platform called Expanding Research and Recruitment by Engaging Adults through Community Health Workers (eREACH) that supports CHWs in the process of screening and referral and engages AA/B older adults in local health services, clinical trials, and health events. Innovative features of eREACH include an electronic screening process, an integrated patient dashboard, microlearning education, and enhanced communication via a virtual agent named “Reggie”. We have successfully developed the first iteration of high-fidelity wireframes of eREACH for AA/B older adults. To take our design to the next level, we are looking to collaborate with SpringBoard designers to leverage our recent findings from focus groups with the target users to (1) enhance and finalize high-fidelity wireframes and (2) transform them into interactive wireframes for user testing and development.

OC-DETECT: home-based screening for early oral cancer detection

Oral cancer is a major public health problem in India. It is estimated 267 million people in India use tobacco in some form with approximately 199 million people being users of smokeless tobacco alone. In 2018, India accounted for one-third of the global burden of oral cancer (OC) cases and mortality with 119,992 new cases and 72,616 deaths. More OC screenings are needed due to the high alcohol and tobacco consumption rates. Prevention, early detection through screenings, and timely and appropriate referrals to treatment are the most effective approaches to reducing OC morbidity and mortality. The most frequent risk factors for OC are frequent tobacco consumption (SLT or smoking), alcohol consumption, dietary deficiencies, positive family history of OC, viral infections like HPV, and poor oral hygiene.   OC-DETECT   will provide a low-cost solution focused on improving education and providing family educators with skills to support a home-based screening for early OC detection for at-risk individuals. Innovative components include simple mHealth screenings for early detection . Screenings for tobacco and alcohol use, as well as signs and symptoms of OC, will be delivered via mobile devices and administered periodically by family members using a checklist screening instrument .  The mobile app will provide a step-by-step guide for a family member to take multiple images of the oral cavity. These images will be stitched together to create a virtual 3D image of the patient’s mouth. Using an algorithm that incorporates the screening results in combination with the oral cavity photos, OC-DETECT will display a risk assessment (binary: low and high). All patients will be required to visit the doctor for an in-person appointment after this to confirm the diagnosis. OC-DETECT will also support education using microlearning content and provide in-app reminders to patients and family members to conduct routine screenings.

Kukua App

Project Background and Description In the United States (US), 73% of scientists and engineers are white with less than 2% being African American (AA) women. While AA girls and women comprise 7% of the US population, they are significantly underrepresented in STEM education and professions. Commonly cited barriers to engagement and retention of AA girls and women in STEM fields include gender and racial stereotypes that threaten how they evaluate themselves, absence of role models, inability to see oneself as a “STEM person,” and lack of interest and confidence in STEM subjects. We are developing Kukua - an innovative, fun, and engaging, early childhood STEM as a promotion intervention program for AA girls (4–8 years-old). Kukua will increase STEM skills development and interest from observational, play-based learning, and role modeling. The specific goal of the project is to develop a prototype of the Kukua program with a smart doll, animated video series, and a mobile app, initially for AA girls between the ages of 4-8 years old. Having already conducted insightful focus group sessions, we now have a solid foundation for the app's initial design. However, we recognize the importance of continuous improvement and innovation. We are seeking a fresh perspective and a boost in creativity to take our initial mock-ups to the next level. As part of the Springboard project, your primary task will be to elevate the existing design, making it even more captivating and high-fidelity for our target audience. We aim to provide a seamless user experience that resonates with both AA girls ages 4 – 8 girls and their parents.

OC-DETECT: home-based screening for early oral cancer detection

Project Background and Description Oral cancer is a major public health problem in India. It is estimated 267 million people in India use tobacco in some form with approximately 199 million people being users of smokeless tobacco alone. In 2018, India accounted for one-third of the global burden of oral cancer (OC) cases and mortality with 119,992 new cases and 72,616 deaths. More OC screenings are needed due to the high alcohol and tobacco consumption rates. Prevention, early detection through screenings, and timely and appropriate referrals to treatment are the most effective approaches to reducing OC morbidity and mortality. The most frequent risk factors for OC are frequent tobacco consumption (SLT or smoking), alcohol consumption, dietary deficiencies, positive family history of OC, viral infections like HPV, and poor oral hygiene.   OC-DETECT   will provide a low-cost solution focused on improving education and providing family educators with skills to support a home-based screening for early OC detection for at-risk individuals. Innovative components include simple mHealth screenings for early detection . Screenings for tobacco and alcohol use, as well as signs and symptoms of OC, will be delivered via mobile devices and administered periodically by family members using a checklist screening instrument .  The mobile app will provide a step-by-step guide for a family member to take multiple images of the oral cavity. These images will be stitched together to create a virtual 3D image of the patient’s mouth. Using an algorithm that incorporates the screening results in combination with the oral cavity photos, OC-DETECT will display a risk assessment (binary: low and high). All patients will be required to visit the doctor for an in-person appointment after this to confirm the diagnosis. OC-DETECT will also support education using microlearning content and provide in-app reminders to patients and family members to conduct routine screenings. Project Scope We have successfully developed low-fidelity wireframes for OCDETECT catering to three distinct end users: students (family members of at-risk individuals), clinicians, and community health workers (CHWs). To take our design to the next level, we are looking to collaborate with SpringBoard designers to enhance our existing low-fidelity wireframes and transform them into high-fidelity/interactive wireframes for user testing and development.

MommaConnect: A project on postpartum depression and its impact on maternal mental and infant health

What is the problem your company is trying to solve by having this work done? What are your criteria for success? The MommaConnect project is rooted in the compelling research and statistics surrounding postpartum depression (PPD) and its impact on maternal mental health and infant outcomes. PPD affects approximately 1 in 5 women, with higher rates observed among African American/Black (AA/B) women after giving birth. The adverse effects of untreated PPD include chronic and treatment-resistant depression, functional impairment, dysfunctional family relationships, and increased suicide risk in mothers. Furthermore, PPD negatively affects mother-infant interaction, leading to decreased attention to infant safety, reduced breastfeeding rates, and poor infant developmental outcomes. Infants of mothers with PPD are at significant risk for long-term cognitive, emotional, and neurobehavioral issues. Access to specialized mental healthcare for AA/B women with PPD is limited, exacerbating healthcare disparities. MommaConnect addresses these challenges by offering evidence- based therapies, such as Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) and Mother-Baby Interaction Therapy (MBI), targeting both mothers with PPD and their infants. By leveraging a tailored mHealth platform, MommaConnect improves treatment accessibility, reduces mental health stigma, and addresses social determinants of health. It provides a comprehensive and innovative approach to perinatal mental health, aiming to enhance therapy sessions, facilitate ongoing monitoring and support, and ultimately improve outcomes for AA/B mothers and their infants. MBC is one of only three programs that target intensive mental health treatment among low-income postpartum women of color. MommaConnect’s innovative features include:   ●      MommaConnect combines evidence-based therapies for maternal mental health and mother-infant interaction. ●      MommaConnect utilizes a customized digital platform for remote psychotherapy and support. ●      MommaConnect overcomes access barriers by offering online/offline capabilities and targeting low-income postpartum women (African American/Black mothers with PPD). ●      MommaConnect enables the collection of patient data and promotes collaborative treatment decisions between clinicians and patients.

Expanding Research and Recruitment by Engaging Adults through Community Health Workers (eREACH)

The African American/Black (AA/B) older adult population is projected to triple and will account for 12.8% of older adults by 2060. Additionally, they are disproportionately affected by chronic conditions such as dementia (up to twice), hypertension (75% versus between 40-55% for White men and women), and diabetes (13.2% versus 7.6% Whites in one study). Risk factors such as lack of access to healthcare, education, transportation, and living in distressed neighborhoods (i.e., social determinants of health) have led to poor health outcomes and health inequities. One approach using community health workers (CHWs) shows effectiveness across multiple settings and conditions for bridging the gaps in health disparities by building trust, improving screening and referral processes, and expanding communication and health information delivery to AA/B older adults. However, scaling effective CHW programs through continuous enrollment and engagement needs to be improved to address the increasing caseloads and limited funding. Benten Technologies is developing an innovative platform called Expanding Research and Recruitment by Engaging Adults through Community Health Workers (eREACH) that supports CHWs in the process of screening and referral and in engaging AA/B older adults in local health services, clinical trials, and health events. Innovative features of eREACH include electronic screening, an integrated patient dashboard, microlearning education, and enhanced communication via a virtual agent named “Reggie”.

Kuleanet Mobile App Design and Testing

Project Background and Description African American/Black (AA/B) women have the lowest BF initiation and EBF rates among all racial ethnicities in the US. Approximately 73.7% of AA/B women initiate BF (versus 86.7% white women) with only 21.2% of AA/B infants being exclusively breastfed at six months. AA/B women experience barriers on various socio-ecological levels to initiating, continuing BF, and maintaining EBF (e.g., discontinuing BF or introducing supplements and other foods).  KULEA-NET will provide comprehensive BF support to nurture and support AA/B women in BF initiation and EBF, and include the following innovative features: a) Social marketing and health branding to promote EBF as a socially desirable behavior; b) Micro-learning educational content to improve the acquisition of knowledge and skills related to EBF; c) Support network communication tools leveraging asynchronous communication that allow mothers to communicate with her BF supporters, peers, and lactation professional supports; d) Context-aware delivery framework that will capitalize on user information such as date of delivery, feeding and diaper log data, and location variables to provide timely feedback, content, and guidance; and e) a Virtual community support network bringing together AA/B mothers and their spouse/family members, and fostering a community of mutual support. For the project, we are doing an iteration on the development of a mobile app for breastfeeding African American/Black women. For the Springboard team, we want the team to develop initial mock-ups and test them with African American/Black women. We have components of the app ready and we would like the team to start the design/development of initial wireframes. 

KUKUA APP Project Scope

Project Background and Description In the United States (US), 73% of scientists and engineers are white with less than 2% being African American (AA) women. While AA girls and women comprise 7% of the US population, they are significantly underrepresented in STEM education and professions. Commonly cited barriers to engagement and retention of AA girls and women in STEM fields include gender and racial stereotypes that threaten how they evaluate themselves, absence of role models, inability to see oneself as a “STEM person,” and lack of interest and confidence in STEM subjects. We are developing Kukua - an innovative, fun, and engaging, early childhood STEM as a promotion intervention program for AA girls (4–8 years-old). Kukua will increase STEM skills development and interest from observational, play-based learning, and role modeling. The specific goal of the project is to develop a prototype of the Kukua program with a smart doll, animated video series, and a mobile app, initially for AA girls between the ages of 4-8 years old. For the project, we are doing an initial iteration of the development of a mobile app for AA girls ages 4 – 8. For the Springboard project, we want to develop initial mock-ups and test them with the AA girls and their mothers. We have some initial themes/concepts drafted based on the focus group sessions and we would like for the team to work on design iterations.  

UX/UI Design

We’re looking for UX/UI talent! Do you have a background or interest in user experience design or user interface design? We’d love to see what you would do with the Mobile Application Game for children between the ages of 4 - 8 . Put yourself in the shoes of a user experience designer working for our company, and create a new design for the mobile application. This can include adding or removing elements from the page, adding interactive or animated features, changing the customer journey from this page, and/or completely redesigning the look and feel. Outcomes Your challenge submission can be an interactive mockup, flat wireframes, a functional mobile app, a photoshop file - whatever gets your vision across. Please feel free to be creative and depart from the design of the rest of the site if you choose, but submissions that take into consideration our branding will be assessed more favourably.