Throughout my career in clinical obstetrics, quality improvement and telehealth, I have been seeking a system of care that will do better for our pregnant patients. I joined Delfina as Chief Medical Officer because I believe that Delfina is radically augmenting the traditional care model for pregnant patients, incorporating new models of care and utilizing ground-breaking technology. As an OBGYN physician, the data-driven, integrated platform that Delfina offers is the technology I wish I had access to in my clinical practice. Delfina is a novel bundle of interventions that will support all aspects of the patient’s pregnancy journey and improve outcomes for families and their healthcare providers. 

Delfina enhances provider efficiency by integrating real-time patient data and providing access to a whole team of pregnancy care professionals. Normally, when I see patients, I look to their electronic health records to get a snapshot of their pregnancy. However, these records only contain data from within the medical system, a small sliver of the data we need to care effectively for patients. During pregnancy, patients might also need to see a variety of different professionals: nutritionists, behavioral health providers, social workers and community resource advocates. This is especially true for high-risk pregnancies. Imagine being diagnosed with gestational diabetes, which raises your risk of preeclampsia. You would need to work closely with a nutritionist to develop a diet and exercise plan that will keep you and your baby healthy. Using Delfina Care, patients work with an in-app nutritionist who delivers care via telehealth and then logs the patient-reported data and symptoms within the app. This data then immediately shows up on the Provider Dashboard, saving patients, their OBGYNs, and their whole care team the time and energy it would take to constantly update individual members of the care team. 

Delfina enhances a stronger relationship with patients. In the traditional care model, an OBGYN might only see their patients a few times during pregnancy. Using Delfina Care, providers can be in contact with their patients more often and gain a deeper understanding of their symptoms, thereby providing a more comprehensive picture of the pregnancy. Delfina supplements the existing care that is provided by OBGYNs by allowing patients to be in contact with their doctors and care team frequently and consistently. 

With Delfina, patients can get the information they need, when and how they need it. Using telehealth, patients can chat with a variety of professionals at convenient times for their busy lives. Patients are also provided a Delfina Guide, a trained doula who serves as a non-clinical personal contact throughout pregnancy. When a patient has a question, concern, or just needs someone to vent to, their Delfina Guide is there for support. This means that patients don’t have to turn to potentially unreliable sources for information. With Delfina’s closed-loop system, instead of scouring the internet for answers, patients can talk to one of our in-app professionals and receive dependable, medically-accurate information. By preventing misinformation and facilitating a close, convenient relationship between our patients and their medical teams, Delfina makes pregnancies safer and easier for everyone involved. 

Delfina flips the model from a medical-centered approach to a person-centered one: no longer confined within the walls of a clinic or hospital, Delfina’s new care model ensures that patients are the ones driving their pregnancy care. It’s no longer about what we as doctors deem the most important, but about listening to what matters to our patients and designing a care model based on their needs. It is paramount that patients retain agency during their pregnancy experience, and Delfina facilitates patients’ ability to receive care on their own terms.