Patient-advocacy is key to accessing treatments to reduce likelihood of preterm delivery


One of the most demonstrably effective ways to determine risk for preterm delivery is to screen for a ‘short’ or insufficient cervix. However, this screening is not universally applied to all pregnant women, even though universal screening is known to be cost effective.

Ovia set out to understand the barriers patients face to receiving this crucial screening. Results indicate that a large majority of healthcare providers are simply not offering a cervical length measurement to their patients and that patients feel uncomfortable requesting the screening.

Ovia’s comprehensive education, self-advocacy, and patient-provider communication programming has shown a two fold increase in the number of patients receiving this crucial screening.