All of CONTINUUM’s activities build long-term, shared maternal health research capacity that spans The Ohio State University, Howard University and Albizu University. This shared research capacity will positively transform postpartum care in low healthcare access areas, both urban and rural, served by CONTINUUM.
Why is this work needed?
Over half of maternal deaths happen postpartum and over 80% of these deaths are preventable. Yet, US care systems struggle to transition postpartum women to longitudinal care teams who can partner with them to identify and address physical and behavioral health needs. Postpartum transition remains especially challenging within communities with limited healthcare access.
How do we aim to accomplish our goals?
CONTINUUM projects, including some highlighted below, are critical to advancing its overall goals. In addition to collaborating across CONTINUUM sites, CONTINUUM is part of a collaborative of 16 maternal health research centers that are working together to address a range of maternal health challenges.
Postpartum service redesign, informed by patient lived experience and community-based organization partnerships, can help innovate longitudinal care solutions that holistically address comprehensive needs of postpartum women. CONTINUUM institutions, positioned within and adjacent to under-resourced communities with limited healthcare access, are well suited to lead postpartum transition redesign that meets the unique needs of its communities.
Current Projects
Community Health Needs Assessment
We are conducting a cross-community health needs assessment (CHNA) to understand gaps in postpartum transition, longitudinal postpartum primary care, and integrated behavioral health care across our CONTINUUM communities. A key part of this CHNA focuses on understanding unique cultural contexts informing community health needs across our varied communities to inform the development and evaluation of culturally contextualized yet cross-cutting postpartum care models.
Sites: OSU, Howard, Albizu
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Maternal Postpartum Care Evidence and Opportunities in the US: A Scoping Review
We have conducted a Preferred Reporting Items for Scoping Review (PRISMA-ScR) guided scoping review synthesizing current literature on the impact of postpartum primary care interventions on US maternal health outcomes.
Sites: OSU, Howard, Albizu
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Peer Support in Postpartum Maternal Health Evidence and Opportunities: A Scoping Review
We are conducting a Preferred Reporting Items for Scoping Review (PRISMA-ScR) guided scoping review synthesizing the role of peer support in managing postpartum mental health conditions.
Sites: OSU, Howard, and Albizu
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The Effects of Community on Postpartum Lived-Experience
We are conducting a journey mapping project to visualize the experience of postpartum individuals, especially related to postpartum care needs. Journey mapping will also explore how specific community factors inform postpartum experience. Journey mapping is a well-established activity used by healthcare systems to improve patient experience. We are excited to apply this activity to postpartum care redesign.
Sites: Albizu and OSU
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Developing a Systems Framework for Clinical/ Community Integrated Longitudinal Postpartum Care
We are using a mixed-methods design approach that integrates community leader interviews, clinician surveys, and community-based organization staff surveys to inform the development of a Systems Framework for Clinical/Community-Integrated Longitudinal Postpartum Care tailored to the needs of CONTINUUM communities. This project is part of a multi-phased CHNA.
Sites: OSU, Albizu, Howard
If you have questions about CONTINUUM’s research, please email continuum@osumc.edu.
Capacity Building Activities
CONTINUUM has many ongoing capacity-building initiatives to help achieve its overarching goals. We have highlighted a few of these initiatives below.
Establishing multi-institutional CONTINUUM governance and leadership capacity
CONTINUUM sites have collaboratively developed a multi-institutional center governance plan that formalizes procedures necessary to build collaborative research capacity and projects. This governance plan serves as a foundation for all collaborative CONTINUUM activities.
Establishing local and cross-institutional communities of multi-disciplinary scholars across the full career development spectrum
We have developed local and CONTINUUM-wide training, mentoring, curricular programs that we will continue to refine to meet the needs of our learners. These activities include: 1) local site-specific mentoring of students, fellows, and junior faculty; 2) hands-on project specific training; 3) a monthly cross-institutional community of scholars forum; and 4) center-specific didactic training focused on community-based participatory research and implementation science.
Establishing a geographically representative stakeholder advisory council to guide CONTINUUM activities
We are so fortunate to have a CONTINUUM-wide stakeholder advisory council (SAC) comprised of patients, clinicians, and community-based organization leaders who have deep knowledge of maternal health challenges facing our CONTINUUM regions and nation. Additionally, the CONTINUUM SAC has representatives from Ohio, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico primary care associations. The CONTINUUM SAC guides all CONTINUUM activities.
