The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office on Women’s Health has announced that the Preeclampsia Foundation Cuff Kit™ program will be joining 10 other final phase winners for the HHS Hypertension Innovator Award Competition. The national competition was created to identify and reward innovative programs that ensure women with hypertension during pregnancy and/or postpartum receive appropriate monitoring and follow-up. This competition supports the Biden-Harris Administration’s implementation of the White House Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis - PDF, a whole-of-government strategy to combat maternal mortality and improve maternal and infant health, focusing on underserved communities.

“Since 2020, Our Cuff Kit™ program has distributed over 30,000 high quality devices and effective patient education materials, while working to collect the evidence base that we need to understand if self-measured blood pressure (SMBP) should become a standard of prenatal and postpartum care for patients,” said Preeclampsia Foundation CEO Eleni Tsigas. “Measuring, monitoring, and managing hypertension before, during, and after pregnancy is critical to improve maternal and infant health outcomes. We believe SMBP can help.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), heart disease is the leading cause of death for women in the United States. Hypertension affects one in every twelve to seventeen pregnancies in the United States. Racial and ethnic disparities involving hypertensive disorders in pregnancy affect more than 1 in 5 delivery hospitalizations of Black women and about 1 in 6 delivery hospitalizations of American Indian and Alaska Native women. Factors that contribute to these disparities include lack of access to and quality of health care, racial bias in the health care system, and psychosocial stress from experiencing racism. In addition, women from all ethnicities and backgrounds face challenges, including provider delays in diagnosing and managing severe range blood pressure, and personal barriers such as transportation, schedules, locality (living in rural or underserved areas), and lack of education about the importance of good blood pressure control.

The announcement comes during May as Preeclampsia Awareness Month, when the Preeclampsia Foundation spotlights preeclampsia as a life-threatening pregnancy disorder of which all patients and providers should be aware. The 2024 theme of “Predict, Prevent, and Prevail over Preeclampsia” emphasizes the need for new and innovative ways to predict what patients are at risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and better preventions to improve maternal and infant health outcomes.

The HHS Hypertension Innovator Award funding will be used by the Foundation to develop new partnerships to address research gaps and new distribution channels, focused on underserved populations across the United States.

“We are incredibly honored to be in this fantastic lineup of centers who are prioritizing hypertension control through patient-provider partnerships,” added Tsigas. “We look forward to continuing to ensure that all pregnant and postpartum patients and their family members know the importance of blood pressure control during pregnancy and beyond.”

For more information about the Cuff Kit, please visit www.preeclampsia.org/the-cuff-project

About the Preeclampsia Foundation

The Preeclampsia Foundation is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established in 2000 to improve the outcomes of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy by educating, supporting, and engaging the community, improving healthcare practices, and finding a cure. We envision a world where preeclampsia and related hypertensive disorders of pregnancy no longer threaten the lives of mothers and babies. For more information, visit www.preeclampsia.org.