April 24, 2025: America’s Maternal Health Crisis: New Research and New Hope

Between 2018 and 2022, rates of pregnancy-related deaths increased by almost 28%, according to new research with Core Faculty Rose Molina, MD, MPH. The paper finds that rates of maternal injury and death can vary greatly by geography, race, and ethnicity. “We need to do better across all the states,” Molina says. “If all states could have performed as well as the highest performing state…we could have avoided 2,679 pregnancy-related deaths.”

• Harvard Gazette: U.S. Pregnancy-Related Deaths Continuing to Rise
• TIME: Pregnancy-Related U.S. Death Rates Have Jumped in Recent Years
• NYT: One-Third of Maternal Deaths Occur Long After Delivery, Study Finds
• JAMA Network Open: Obstetrics and Gynecology | Pregnancy-Related Deaths in the US, 2018-2022

April 7, 2025: Advancing Better Birth Around the World: Program Spotlight

The WHO Safe Childbirth Checklist helps reduce stillbirth and improve adherence to evidence-based practices, finds a new systematic review from the BetterBirth team. By breaking down overall Checklist adherence and adherence at each pause point, the team’s analysis reveals the impact of implementation. By understanding which practices are adhered to most and least often in practice, new work can support better Checklist design and implementation to improve childbirth safety around the world.

March 28, 2025: The Value of Primary Care

How much time and effort is needed for an X-ray? How about coordinating care with specialists, other health professionals, and the patient herself? Often, the essential services of primary care don’t fit neatly in a fee-for-service box, and that has negatively impacted how primary care is valued. A National Academies report with Executive Director Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH explores new ways to align primary care payment with its value.

In conjunction with the report, Dr. Bitton presented about the history of the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. Watch the presentation to learn how current fee-for-service payment structures impact primary health care delivery.

March 14, 2025: A Stroke Checklist for Timely Triage

Every minute counts in stroke care. Innovative treatments like IV thrombolysis and endovascular thrombectomy can be life-changing, but to get them, eligible patients need to be evaluated and transferred to a comprehensive stroke center quickly.

Associate Faculty Sandeep Kumar, MD, and his Spark Grant team designed and tested a checklist to address bottlenecks in the evaluation and transport process and help stroke patients get the care they need faster. Learn more about the checklist in a video with Dr. Kumar.

February 19, 2025: Expanding the Possibilities of Home Hospital: Program Spotlight

The Home Hospital team has been awarded a five-year Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) contract to deliver hospital-level care to Americans in rural communities. The contract is part of the PARADIGM program, which aims to create a multi-purpose vehicle equipped with specialized medical technology to increase access to home hospital and deliver services such as diagnostic imaging and chemotherapy. The goal: to reach Americans in areas where no hospital exists.

The team will bring their expertise in human-centered design, home-based technology, and implementation to package the ideal technology and personnel into workflows that can be scaled across the U.S.

February 7, 2025: Global Impact of the Safe Childbirth Checklist

For over a decade, the Safe Childbirth Checklist has been used around the world to help birth attendants follow key steps for safer births. A new systematic review and meta-analysis from the BetterBirth team analyzes the impact of the SCC, finding it increases adherence to evidence-based practices and can reduce stillbirth.

December 13, 2024: Expanding TeamBirth Access for Native Americans

Last week Claremore Indian Hospital in Oklahoma became the first in the Indian Health Service to launch TeamBirth. The hospital cares for patients from twelve different area tribes, including Cherokee Nation, increasing access to the communication tool.

Adapting TeamBirth (ᎢᏧᎳᎭ iᎾiᏘᏅᏍᎬ, “Birthing Together,” in Cherokee) to the tribal context was the subject of an editorial last year in Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing by Andi Carpitcher, MSN, RN, with Ariadne Labs Senior Clinical Implementation Specialist, Misha Severson, MN, and Senior Research Scientist Joyce Edmonds, PhD, MPH, RN. The co-design process acknowledged the inherent connection between culture and the birthing journey. During the launch, Ms. Carpitcher honored Delivery Decisions Initiative Director Amber Weiseth, DNP, MSN, RN with a Cherokee blanket.

November 25, 2024: Caring for Veterans Experiencing Homelessness

We are proud to announce a new model to bring the benefits of home hospital care to veterans experiencing homelessness. Eligible residents of the New England Center and Home for Veterans’ (NECHV) Safe Haven will now be able to receive hospital-level care from trusted providers where they already live, providing stability of support and services.

This project is a collaboration between Ariadne Labs, Mass General Brigham Home Hospital, and New England Center and Home for Veterans (NECHV).

Additional coverage in Becker’s Hospital Review and the Harvard Crimson.

October 25, 2024: Improving Hypertension Management in Kenya

The Primary Health Care team has concluded a partnership with Penda Health to respond to increasing need for chronic disease management in Kenya. The teams co-designed a person-centered hypertension clinical pathway to leverage existing acute care infrastructure for chronic care. The pilot program is currently being implemented in four clinics with plans to expand to ten more this season

October 21, 2024: 133,000,000 Lives Touched

Today, we are thrilled to share our annual report. In 2023, our work reached a critical milestone – we touched more than 133 million patient lives in more than 185 countries around the world.

September 6, 2024: Pregnant and Undocumented: Navigating the Labyrinth of US Health Care

In every state, pregnant people who are undocumented can get labor and delivery care under Emergency Medicaid. Accessing care beyond that means navigating a labyrinth of location-specific policies, even though this care could positively impact 6% of US births. Research Manager Amanda DiMeo, PA, MSc and Core Faculty Rose Molina, MD, MPH analyze the labyrinth of pregnancy care for undocumented immigrants.

August 22, 2024: Improving (and Measuring!) Maternal Autonomy

In a new paper from the Delivery Decisions Initiative team, TeamBirth was associated with increased maternal autonomy and shared decision-making during labor and birth. The study used the Mother’s Autonomy in Decision-Making (MADM) scale and showed the scale’s potential as a measure of patient-reported experience.

August 10, 2024: Community Primary Care, from Costa Rica to Baltimore

A new program is bringing primary care to people’s doorsteps in Baltimore. The program’s inspiration: Costa Rica. Executive Director Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH joins PBS News Hour to discuss the power of community-based primary care.

August 1, 2024: Scrubbing in to Surgery 7,000 Miles Away

With Proximie, an augmented reality tool for surgical collaboration, a surgeon can virtually “scrub in” to a case 7,000 miles away and provide guidance in real time. A chapter in Resilient Health co-authored by Deputy Director Katherine Semrau, PhD, MPH explores implementation strategies for new health technologies in low-resource settings, using our collaboration with Proximie, Jhpiego, and the Ministry of Health in Kenya as a case study.

July 19, 2024: Making and Sustaining Change in Home Hospital and Surgical Safety

Before 2020, there were about two dozen home hospital programs. Now, there are more than 300. These new programs need support to succeed. The Home Hospital Early Adopters Accelerator created 20 knowledge products to help organizations develop and support their programs. Our Home Hospital team found that one year later, these knowledge products are still useful and high-quality, with potential to improve patient care.

June 28, 2024: Tailoring Serious Illness Care in Safety Net Settings

Our identities and experiences shape how we think and talk about serious illness. For patients from marginalized communities, it’s especially important that communication respects their identities, culture, and experiences. A qualitative study of the Serious Illness Care Program in safety net health systems sheds new light on patient and clinician experiences and what is needed to address current disparities.

June 11, 2024: A Program to Reduce Delayed Diagnosis of Colorectal Cancer

When a patient receives a positive result in colorectal cancer screening, timely follow-up is key to diagnosis and treatment. When patients miss this follow-up, the Ambulatory Safety Net (ASN) program can “catch” them. The ASN program – developed with health systems in Boston and implemented as part of a learning collaborative – has already identified over 5,000 patients with over 1,500 completing testing.

Read the full paper in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety.

May 16, 2024: Can Race Dialogues Build Trust in Health Care?

Conversations about race and racism in health care are hard, but necessary. Our Serious Illness Care team used their expertise in guiding difficult conversations to make TRACE, a tool to facilitate race dialogues. In a new blog from Associate Faculty Justin Sanders, MD, MSc and Senior Project Coordinator Catherine Schofield, learn how these dialogues can foster more equitable care.

April 26, 2024: Using Scorecards to Strengthen Primary Care

In a new video, Executive Director Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH shares the value of using scorecards to improve primary care. Work that began in 2015 with the Primary Healthcare Performance Initiative (PHCPI) to evaluate primary care systems around the world has led to new efforts to measure and improve the United States’ struggling primary care system. Our collaborators at Massachusetts Health Quality Partners and Milbank Memorial Fund have led new research on the potential of these scorecards in the U.S. and developed a dashboard for exploring the 2024 National Primary Care Scorecard.

April 12, 2024: A New Tool to Give Your Checklist a Check-Up

BMJ Quality & Safety recognized a paper from the Safe Surgery/Safe Systems team as one of the top articles of 2023. The paper introduced CheckPOINT, a simple and reliable tool to assess whether an organization is implementing the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist effectively. Insights gathered with the tool can identify focus areas for improving Checklist performance.

March 28, 2024: CMS to Offer Primary Care More Flexible Funding

In January 2025, the CMS Innovation Center will launch a new primary care funding model to encourage team-based, person-centered, and equitable care. The ACO Primary Care Flex Model will provide predictable monthly payments to give practices more flexibility to offer services beyond traditional office visits – such as reaching out to patients proactively and including interdisciplinary teams – that are underfunded in current fee-for-service systems. Executive Director Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH contributed to the design of this innovative model.

March 15, 2024: Innovation Starts with a Spark

In a new video, hear how six Spark Grantees have used the program to ignite ideas and make an impact.

March 1, 2024: Mapping Momentum in Africa’s Medical Education

Medical schools are crucial to training the future health workforce and supporting health care systems, but data on medical schools in Africa have been outdated and incomplete. An investigation from the Better Evidence team found that there are 444 medical schools  on the continent and compiled an updated, accurate list that can inform investment, resource allocation, and policy formation. 

February 15, 2024: Measuring the Health of U.S. Primary Care

Scorecards can be effective tools for illustrating health systems’ strengths and challenges and illuminating the path to improvement. In the U.S., scorecards can be used to strengthen primary care and work toward goals set in a landmark 2021 NASEM Report. Ariadne Labs’ Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH, Joey Ross, MPA, and June-Ho Kim, MD, MPH, join Massachusetts Health Quality Partners CEO Barbara Rabson and Milbank Memorial Fund President Christopher Koller in a new Health Affairs article.

February 1, 2024: Reimagining Childbirth

The Studio at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health hosted “Reimagining the childbirth experience,” a panel discussing strategies to improve maternal health in the United States. Delivery Decisions Initiative Director Amber Weiseth, DNP, RNC-OB joined an expert panel to discuss low-tech, high-impact solutions in maternal health, highlighting the positive impact TeamBirth has made in 150+ birthing facilities around the country.

January 11, 2024: How Primary Care Saved Lives in Costa Rica

Primary Health Care Fellow Madeline Pesec, MD, ScM, co-authored a new study isolating the effect of Costa Rica’s primary health care system on long-term mortality. The study took advantage of a natural experiment, which was possible because of the way the country rolled out its transformative primary health care model in the 1990s. Mortality rates fell by 13% nine years after rollout, with greater impact for people over age 65 (22% decrease) and people with cardiovascular conditions (19% decrease).

December 14, 2023: Asaf Bitton Recognized with Primary Care Leadership Award

In a speech delivered at the 2023 Barbara Starfield Awards Dinner, Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH, recognizes the challenges primary care clinicians are facing and emphasizes the important role of hope in creating change. “Hope is a strategic imperative. Hope is a discipline to be cultivated. Hope is not optional if you wish to see any change in this world,” said Bitton.  

November 9, 2023: TeamBirth is a Model for Person-Centered Birthing Care

In an article in OBG Management, members of the Delivery Decisions Initiative detail how TeamBirth supports shared decision-making to give patients the role they want in labor and delivery. Data shows that TeamBirth increases patients’ sense of autonomy, and, in a survey, 90% of clinicians agreed they would recommend TeamBirth for other labor and delivery units.

November 2, 2023: New Grants Spark Innovation in Nursing Home and Childbirth Care

The Ariadne Labs Spark Grant program provides support for new and early-stage ideas to make health care safer, more equitable, and more integrated for patients everywhere. Now in its 11th year, the program has funded more than 20 projects. The work of this year’s three grantees will focus on improving quality of life in nursing homes, preparing pregnant people for what to expect in early labor, and enhancing physical design of childbirth spaces to improve outcomes and experiences.

October 20, 2023: Operating Room Crisis Checklists have gone digital

Ariadne Labs’ Safe Surgery/Safe Systems team has released an updated set of fully-digitized, customizable Operating Room Crisis Checklists. The compendium of 17 Checklists was developed in collaboration with a multi-disciplinary expert advisory board of international leaders in anesthesiology, pharmacology, patient safety, and more. The Checklists serve as cognitive aids for operating room teams to respond quickly and effectively in moments of crisis.

October 10, 2023: How does hospital management affect clinical care?

The quality of hospital management plays an important role in the success of efforts to improve clinical care; however, hospitals often have limited insight into management quality. In partnership with 2018 Spark Grantee Raffaella Sadun, PhD, MSc, the U.S. Census Bureau has released data from the first at-scale measurement of managerial quality across U.S. hospitals. Researchers can use this data to study connections between managerial quality and quality of care.

September 22, 2023: How two New Jersey hospitals are improving teamwork and communication in childbirth

This week, two New Jersey hospitals celebrated the launch of their TeamBirth initiatives. Virtua Mount Holly Hospital and Saint Peter’s University Hospital join four other implementers in the state. The launches are part of the state’s Nurture NJ program led by first lady Tammy Murphy, and they’re supported by the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute.

• NJ Spotlight News: Goal of ‘TeamBirth’ program is to improve outcomes for women, infants
• Video: ‘TeamBirth’ program to improve results for women, infants
• Saint Peter’s University Hospital to Launch “TeamBirth”
• TeamBirth NJ Launches at Virtua Mount Holly Hospital
• New Jersey Business Magazine: Saint Peter’s University Hospital Launches ‘TeamBirth’

August 11, 2023: To improve care, start with clinical culture

Launching a new program is one thing. Changing clinical practice is another. A new paper by members of the Serious Illness Care Program team in The Joint Commission Journal on Patient Safety and Quality analyzes elements of clinical culture and implementation that facilitated serious illness communication practice change in five health systems. Insights from this research can offer a roadmap for health systems implementing the Serious Illness Care Program or other quality improvement initiatives. 

July 27, 2023: How does hospital management affect clinical care?

The quality of hospital management plays an important role in the success of efforts to improve clinical care; however, hospitals often have limited insight into management quality. In partnership with 2018 Spark Grantee Raffaella Sadun, PhD, MSc, the U.S. Census Bureau has released data from the first at-scale measurement of managerial quality across U.S. hospitals. Researchers can use this data to study connections between managerial quality and quality of care.

June 28, 2023: Birthing Together

ᎢᏧᎳᎭ ιᎾιᏘᏅᏍᎬ is the word Cherokee community matriarchs chose to capture TeamBirth. Misha Severson, MN, RNC-OB, co-authors an editorial in JOGNN on implementing the program at Cherokee Nation birthing centers and constructing new paradigms in health systems to improve care for Indigenous families.

June 16, 2023: What 8,100 clinicians have to say about primary care

A new paper in NEJM Catalyst warns that primary care is in crisis. Co-authored by Executive Director Asaf Bitton, MD, MPH, the paper shares findings from the largest national survey of primary care clinicians conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings highlight clinician barriers to delivering equitable, high-quality patient care, and the authors outline emergency steps needed to stabilize and sustain primary care before it’s too late.

June 1, 2023: Improving Birthing Care in Zanzibar

Last month, WAJAMAMA, Zanzibar’s first holistic maternal health clinic, and the State University of Zanzibar launched a newly renovated Simulation Lab at the university. In collaboration with Ariadne Labs’ Delivery Decisions Initiative, Laerdal Global Health, and Georgetown University, the partners refinished the space with new simulation equipment to support nursing and midwifery students in building the skills needed to deliver high quality patient care. The launch comes as part of a larger effort to address rising maternal and infant mortality rates in Zanzibar.

May 19, 2023: Anti-Racism in Serious Illness Care

In an interview, Karen Bullock, PhD, LICSW, FGSA, APHSW-C, discusses how racism impacts our health care systems and what steps can be taken to begin to create change. Bullock, who is the Louise McMahon Ahearn Endowed Professor in the Boston College School of Social Work, will present on “Anti-Racist Practices in Serious Illness Care” during Ariadne Labs’ June 13th – 14th Serious Illness Care Program Summit: Driving Equity in Serious Illness Communication and Care.

May 3, 2023: Why we need to talk about equity in Serious Illness Care

Erik Fromme, MD, MCR, FAAHPM, and Stacey Downey, MA, shared details of the upcoming Serious Illness Care Program Summit: Driving Equity in Serious Illness Communication and Care. The virtual, CME-eligible Summit will feature workshops and presentations from national experts in serious illness care, palliative care, health equity, and more. Participants will gain early access to the Serious Illness Care Program’s all-new digital learning modules, and a limited number of seats will be available for a new simulation-based training in how to use the Serious Illness Conversation Guide.

April 21, 2023: Celebrating 10 Years of Impact: Ariadne Labs’ Anniversary Video

In recognition of Ariadne Labs’ 10-year anniversary, hear from our leaders on how we are rising to the emerging challenges facing today’s health care systems.

April 6, 2023: Measuring and Improving Primary Health Care around the World

Measuring and Improving Primary Health Care: Tools from PHCPI: A Reference Guide
The Primary Health Care Performance Initiative (PHCPI) released a reference guide summarizing the tools and resources developed since the partnership’s formation in 2015. It details the groundbreaking progress made in understanding, measuring, and improving primary health care. Though the partnership has concluded, these tools will continue to serve health system leaders in advocating for PHC to make health systems more resilient and responsive, while improving the quality and equity of care.