Babyscripts, a new app, aims to help doctors, pregnant patients stay in touch with fewer trips to the doctor’s office

By Kelly Ragan

The single scariest thing James Summers saw last year was pregnant patients so sick with COVID-19 they had to be intubated. 

In his nearly 20 years in practice, the obstetrics and gynecology specialist with Banner Health in Greeley had never seen anything like that – no one had, he said – so doctors had to figure things out on the fly. 

“Pregnant moms would come in, and we were like, ‘What do we do with these people? What will this do to the baby?’” Summers said.

That’s when it became apparent how valuable a new digital tool could be in helping pregnant patients stay in touch with their doctors while taking fewer trips to the doctor’s office – and limiting their exposure to the virus. 

The tool is called Babyscripts. It’s a phone app folks can download that can help expecting parents. 

For one, it offers prenatal education, or all the topics you’d buy books on or frantically Google when you’re expecting a baby – think information on what foods to avoid while pregnant, how much a baby grows each month, information on breastfeeding, etc.

But it also does remote blood-pressure monitoring, glucose monitoring and provider-patient messaging. 

The blood pressure monitoring is important, Summers said, since preeclampsia, a condition characterized by high blood pressure in the mother, can be dangerous – even fatal.

According to the Mayo Clinic, preeclampsia can develop without symptoms. 

“More regular monitoring will help keep mother and baby safe,” Summers said.

The app essentially offers telemedicine for pregnant patients for the things that make sense, Summers said. Though much of the care pregnant patients need is hands-on, remote blood-pressure monitoring gives doctors the chance to intervene earlier should problems arise without pregnant patients having to risk COVID-19 exposure in crowded hospitals. 

“We know a lot of our pregnant patients are younger and pretty tech-savvy,” Summers said. “They know how to use this stuff – they can run circles around me when it comes to using a smartphone.” 

The app (and the equipment to go with it, like the blood-pressure cuff) is free for patients, Summer said. 

Of course, Summers said, he still advises pregnant patients to wear a mask, avoid social gatherings, and get vaccinated if they get the chance.

Banner Health is an investor in the app, along with the CU Healthcare Innovation Fund, the Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin health network, and WellSpan Health in Pennsylvania and northern Maryland. 

“Banner is proud to invest in Babyscripts’ highly innovative offerings for virtual maternity care, which we hope to scale across our six-state system,” said Scott Nordlund, chief strategy and growth officer at Banner Health and head of Banner Innovation Group, in a news release. “Central to our innovation strategy are partners like Babyscripts, with whom we can tailor streamlined digital solutions for our patients to make health care better, simpler and easier to access.”

That innovation could be important in moving the needle on maternal mortality rates in the United States. 

According to ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism outlet, the United States has the worst rate of maternal deaths in the developed world with 60% of maternal deaths deemed preventable. 

"We believe the future of healthcare is combining virtual patient management and remote monitoring technologies in ways that increase access and improve outcomes at lower cost," said Steven Lindseth, General Partner at the CU healthcare Innovation fund, in a news release.