Article features Abike James, MD, MPH, Elizabeth Howell, MD, MPP, Rebecca Feldman Hamm, MD, MSCE, and Lisa Levine, MD, MSCE.
Christina Hernandez Sherwood for Penn Medicine’s Service in Action site: “At Penn Medicine, connecting with patients during pregnancy and addressing sources of mistrust, bias, and racial inequity, are all crucially important parts of building toward a state of lifelong health and well-being that is equitable for all patients. These priorities are part of the organization’s comprehensive effort to address the inequity of maternal health outcomes for Black patients and other people of color. New and expectant mothers in the United States are more likely to die than those in any other developed country in the world. For Black women, the risk of death is more than two and a half times higher nationally, and four times higher in Philadelphia. Yet more than 80 percent of these deaths are preventable.”