PolicyMap and Surgo Health Partner to Drive Awareness of the Critical State of Maternal Care in the U.S.

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- PolicyMap, an online data and mapping company, announced today the integration of Surgo Health's' Granular Maternity Vulnerability Index (gMVI) into its platform. The gMVI is a critical tool to help tackle maternal health disparities in the U.S. by identifying where and why mothers in the United States are vulnerable to poor maternal health outcomes and facilitates more informed decision-making and targeted interventions, driving better health outcomes for mothers and children across the United States.

The U.S. has one of the highest maternal mortality rates among developed nations, with significant racial, economic, and geographic disparities exacerbating the crisis according to data from the gMVI. Black women, for example, are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women, and American Indian and Alaska Native women are 2.6 times more likely to live under conditions that are not conducive to good maternal health. The gMVI highlights vulnerabilities and inequities faced by expectant mothers, combining over 50 indicators across socio-demographics, healthcare access, physical environment, social environment, and health behaviors.

"The current maternal health crisis reflects deeply on our society's ability to care for women and families," said Dr. Sema Sgaier, CEO of Surgo Health. "We built the gMVI to expose these disparities at the community level to bridge the racial maternal health gap and drive meaningful systemic change so that all mothers receive the care they deserve."

PolicyMap enables users to visualize maternal health vulnerabilities alongside other social determinants of health (SDOH) data, drawing from more than 75,000 indicators across over 170 sources. This integration clarifies decision-making and facilitates effective targeting by allowing users to explore contributing factors to poor maternal outcomes, such as housing instability, food insecurity, and inadequate healthcare access. With the gMVI layered into PolicyMap's comprehensive datasets, health systems can more effectively allocate resources, strategically deploy services, and implement targeted interventions in high-risk areas—helping healthcare providers anticipate and address disparities to support healthier pregnancies and reduce maternal mortality rates. Other organizations that may be interested in PolicyMap's SDOH and Surgo Health's gMVI include public health departments, health foundations, advocacy groups, and researchers.

"The integration of this unique data into PolicyMap enables us to highlight the critical issue of maternal care in our country," said PolicyMap CEO & Founder, Maggie McCullough. "By leveraging the insights from the Granular Maternity Vulnerability Index, we empower communities to take action to ensure that all mothers have the opportunity for safe and healthy pregnancies."

About PolicyMap
PolicyMap simplifies analyzing geographic data. To meet the demand for authoritative, relevant, current location data, PolicyMap offers a mapping and analytics platform, bulk data delivery, and custom solutions. Our tools are used across industries for market intelligence, site selection, impact evaluation, product development, and academic research. PolicyMap is a woman-led company with offices in Philadelphia, PA, and Los Angeles, CA.

For more information, please visit our website www.policymap.com.

About Surgo Health
Surgo Health is a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) offering a revolutionary behavioral analytics platform and generating novel, real-world data to inform better health outcomes. Our data-driven, human-centered approach enables a greater understanding of the complex factors that influence how individuals engage in their healthcare.

Surgo Health uses its data platform to understand people's beliefs, biases, social norms, socio-economic conditions, and the overall environment in which they live to understand their unique healthcare journeys. Surgo Health aims to use data to transform health outcomes across areas including adolescent mental health, maternal health, and clinical trial diversity, recruitment, and retention. Visit surgohealth.com to learn more.

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SOURCE PolicyMap