The New York Community-Hospital-Academic Maternal Health Equity Partnership (NY-CHAMP) is an NIH-funded Maternal Health Research Center of Excellence working to transform the maternal healthcare ecosystem across New York City and State.
Most preventable maternal deaths occur in the intrapartum and immediate postpartum periods with disparities in severe maternal morbidity (SMM) and mortality (MM). NY-CHAMP aims to identify and address the drivers of SMM and MM across New York, while building scalable strategies to inform systems and policy change in the region.
Our Work
NY-CHAMP is building a collaborative infrastructure for community-centered maternal health science in New York with work across three key areas: research, training, and community engagement.
The center will implement and evaluate a novel doula-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy program designed to address cardiovascular health, mental health and SMM during the postpartum period. NY-CHAMP will also identify the mitigating effects of policy interventions to improve maternal health.
Project 1 begins with focus groups conducted in preparation for Living Healthy for Moms (LHMoms). LHMoms is a RCT of doula intervention postpartum (n=450 total) at Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, Allen Hospital, and NYC H+H/Queens. A purposive sample of doulas, hospital administrators, providers, and staff (n=10 at each hospital; N=30 total) will be enrolled to participate in three rounds of focus group discussions and brief web-based implementation processes at Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, Allen Hospital, and NYC H+H/Queens.
Project 2 is Policy Solutions for Addressing Maternal Health which examines state healthcare workforce and state Medicaid eligibility generosity to improve maternal health. Additionally, Patient IDIs and stakeholder FGD: 15-20 patients from Brooklyn Methodist, Allen Hospital, NYC H+H/Queens (total n=60) in coordination with Project 1 is hosting three FGDs with hospital stakeholders and three FGDs with community stakeholders at all three hospitals (n=2 per site, 10 participants each, total n=60).
The center will establish a Career Development and Training Core (CDTC) to transform the maternal health research culture and create a pipeline of early-stage investigators expertly trained in community partnerships to improve maternal health.
NY-CHAMP Scholars will be engaged in hands-on training in intervention science that is community-led and interdisciplinary to improve maternal health via a collaborative demonstration project in partnership with The Bridge Directory and Morris Heights Health Center’s Women’s Health Pavilion.
The center will create a Community Engagement and Policy Action Core (CEPA) to serve as a platform for iterative community input, co-design processes, research dissemination, capacity building and policy action.
A co-design process locally led by Black Women’s Blueprint, Nurse Family Partnership program, and Perinatal and Infant Community Health program will be conducted in parallel urban and rural sites with two safety-net hospitals of the NYC H+H and in 2 hospitals in upstate New York in partnership with the University of Rochester and NYS DoH. Simultaneously, Poppy Seed Health will collect baseline survey data and weekly checks with a prospective sample to evaluate maternal mental health outcomes during pregnancy and 12 months postpartum. This is a capacity building pilot grant for program evaluation of Poppy Seed’s virtual doula platform.
Additionally, a Community-Hospital-Academic Research Governance (CHARGE) Board will operate through the Community Engagement & Policy Action Core, and with oversight from the four community partner MPIs, will serve as a leadership advisory body and accountability mechanism for the center, providing a sustained platform for iterative input and engagement across the life of the center and all dimensions. The CHARGE Board will include a group of 18 multi-sector stakeholders from the following organizations:
- NYC Health + Hospitals
- NYS Department of Health
- NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
- ACOG District II: Safe Motherhood Initiative
- NYS: University of Rochester Medical Center
- NYS: Nurse-Family Partnership
- NYS: Perinatal and Infant Community Health
- Mt. Sinai Health System
- Northwell Health
- Dominican Women's Development Center
- Poppy Seed Health
- Mexican Coalition for the Empowerment of Youth and Families, Inc.
- Christiana Care Health System
The NY-CHAMP program is funded by NIH grant U54HD113172.
Our Team
NY-CHAMP has nine Multiple Principal Investigators (MPIs), three of whom are based at Columbia:
- Uma M. Reddy, MD, MPH, PD/PI (Contact)
- Kelli S. Hall, PhD, PD/PI (MPI)
- Jacquelyn Y. Taylor, PhD, PNP-BC, RN, FAHA, FAAN, PD/PI (MPI)
- Lauren M. Osborne, MD, PD/PI (MPI)
- Sevonna Brown, PD/PI (MPI)
- Madeleine Dorval-Moller, PD/PI (MPI)
- Emilie Rodriguez, PD/PI (MPI)
- Victoria St. Clair, PD/PI (MPI)
Our Partners
Contact Us
rw2989@cumc.columbia.edu(link sends e-mail)
Roberta J. Wright-Washington, MS, MBS
Program Manager, NY-CHAMP
