Maternal Health Webinar Series

Please note that participation in all AHA conference calls and webinars are by express written invitation from the AHA for AHA members only. Unauthorized participants, and/or any party that aids unauthorized participants, may be subject to criminal and civil penalties under both state and federal law, including the Electronic Communication Privacy Act.

November 2018

Partnerships and Leading Practices to Improve Maternal Health

Tuesday, November 13, 2018
2 – 3 p.m. ET

AHA will host this special member webinar presentation and discussion on improving maternal health and reducing maternal mortality, the first in a series of webinars on this topic.

Robyn Begley, DNP, R.N., AHA senior vice president and chief nursing officer and CEO of its American Organization of Nurse Executives subsidiary, and Jay Bhatt, D.O., AHA senior vice president and chief medical officer, will host the webinar.

Patricia M. Witcher, MSN, RNC-OB, clinical outcomes manager of Northside Hospital in Atlanta – a large provider of obstetric services with nearly 17,000 babies born at the hospital each year – will discuss state and national quality initiatives, including the Maternal Mortality Review Committee, and share maternal safety processes and practices. Webinar participants also will have the opportunity to submit questions.

Webinar Materials

Heart Safe Motherhood: Innovation to Improve Maternal Outcomes, Experience and Cost

Wednesday, November 28, 2018
2 p.m. ET

The University of Pennsylvania Health System has developed an innovative patient-centered maternity care model that leverages technology and enables clinicians to drive better pregnancy outcomes for women with chronic hypertension. The program received second place in this year's AHA Innovation Challenge.

Adi Hirshberg, MD, co-founder Heart Safe Motherhood and assistant professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania, will discuss how this model engages, monitors, and manages high-risk patients from hospital admission, through delivery and after they have returned home postpartum.

Webinar Materials

December 2018

Meeting the Challenges to Reduce Maternal Risk: A Dialogue with Neel Shah, MD

Wednesday, December 5, 2018
12 p.m. ET

Jay Bhatt, DO, AHA senior vice president and chief medical officer, will welcome Neel Shah, MDF, MPP, a nationally recognized expert on the complex challenges facing hospitals and health systems as they work to reduce risks for mothers and babies throughout pregnancy.

Shah is assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School and director of Delivery Decisions Initiative at Harvard’s Ariadne Labs. A practicing obstetrician-gynecologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston, he will address work at BIDMC to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality and share his perspective and expertise on the design and spreading of solutions that improve health care for mothers.

Webinar Materials

Reducing Maternal Morbidity and Mortality: The Providence Oregon Approach

Thursday, December 13, 2018
12 p.m. ET

Learning how leading hospitals and health systems are creating change and improving maternal health and mothers experience is an important way to move the country forward on national maternal safety and quality goals. Providence St. Joseph Health works as a system and regionally on continued obstetric quality improvement and has positive results to share. Teamwork among hospital leaders and across clinical disciplines is key to shared goals, communication, and optimal maternal practices.

Mark Tomlinson, MD, is a practicing maternal fetal medicine specialist and regional medical director of obstetric services at Providence Health System in Oregon. Laurel Durham, RN, MPH, regional director of women’s services, has accountability for strategic and programmatic oversight for women’s services across Providence's acute and outpatient settings in Oregon.

They will share Providence St. Joseph Health Oregon's experience and strategies to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality.

Webinar Materials

For questions on webinar content, please contact Bonnie Connors Jellen, director of AHA's Section for Maternal and Child Health, at bjellen@aha.org. For questions on logistics, please contact Ji Kim at jihankim@aha.org.