Maternal Health Informatics and Disparities (HRSA Grant UR650342)
Developing a comprehensive data analytics infrastructure model to support maternal healthcare for women in low-resource settings with substance use disorders
Our Mission
To develop a comprehensive patient centered data analytics infrastructure model that prioritizes the needs of pregnant and postpartum women from low-income populations who are struggling with substance use at Meharry’s Elam Health Center, with the ultimate goal to positively impact the well-being of pregnant and postpartum women nationwide.
Effort 1
Support substance abuse residential treatment and recovery program for pregnant and postpartum women within the Elam Mental Health Center (EMHC) at Meharry Medical College (Meharry), one of the historically black medical colleges (HBCU) in the United States.
Effort 2
Address health disparities and investigate the social determinant of health (SDoH) and other risk factors that contribute to the high risk pregnant-related complications associated with substance use disorders (SUD) and mental health.
Effort 3
Advance maternal health studies within the biomedical data science program of Meharry’s School of Applied Computational Sciences
Substance Use and Maternal Health
Substance use during pregnancy is a significant public health crisis that impacts both the mother and the developing fetus. It is associated with increased risk of adverse health outcomes, including poor birth, neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), mental health or behavioral disorders, post-partum complications such as psychological distress, and mental health disorders and attention problems.
These issues disproportionately affect African American and low-income populations. This project will primarily focus on pregnant or postpartum women in the Nashville area who use substances and who are treated at Meharry’s Lloyd C. Elam Mental Health Center.
Elam Mental Health Center
The Elam Mental Health Center is part of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health. The EMHC’s Rainbow Program is a residential treatment program that provide 90-days of detoxification and residential treatment services to pregnant and postpartum women who lack financial resources.
Despite years of patient care, records have historically been paper-based, leaving a critical gap in the data infrastructure needed to understand what drives adverse maternal health outcomes in these women.
Our Solution
Through this project, we are building a comprehensive, multimodal data analytics infrastructure to close disparities in maternal health care. We integrate electronic health records, patient surveys administered at intake and across 24 months of follow-up, and brain imaging data collected at the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Sciences (VUIIS) to capture the full clinical, social, and neurological picture of maternal SUD.
Using this infrastructure, our team applies artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify social determinants of health (SDoH), explore brain functional connectivity patterns linked to SUD relapse and build predictive models that can flag pregnant and postpartum women at the highest risk before adverse outcomes occur. Data are drawn from multiple sources including Meharry’s own EHR, the Tennessee Department of Health discharge dataset, and the NIH All of Us Research Program, enabling analysis across diverse cohorts and geographies.
This work is carried out in partnership by the School of Applied Computational Sciences (SACS) at Meharry, training the next generation of data scientists from underrepresented communities to lead maternal health research. Every finding informs the care provided to the women and families served by EMHC, with the goal of transforming evidence into better, more equitable care.
Datasets
The primary study patient cohort is the pregnant and postpartum women enrolled and treated in the Rainbow program at EMHC. We will also explore Tennessee state hospital discharge data and the NIH All of Us dataset.
Student Involvement
This project also engages and support students at the Meharry School of Applied Computational Sciences in education and research. Those students will pursue research in maternal health care and applications of data science to that domain. The results of their work will be shared internally and externally, with the objective of engaging more students and researchers in comprehending health disparities and predicting maternal health outcomes.
