Module 1: Welcome to the Gabby System

What is it?

The Gabby System is a virtual care advocate designed by researchers in the Preconception Care Team at Boston Medical Center and the Relational Agents Group at Northeastern University. The Gabby System is an online system designed to help young black and African American women identify, assess, and resolve health-related risk factors in order to promote preconception health and improve potential birth and maternal outcomes in the future. The Gabby System is a low-cost, user-friendly, culturally relevant, and evidence-based intervention that screens women for over 100 health topics. The system provides health education on these topics and uses motivational interviewing and several other behavioral techniques to promote health behavior change. The Gabby System can also be used before a clinical appointment which would allow clients to identify and prioritize health topics to discuss with their provider.

The Gabby System has been under development and testing for over 10 years to ensure that it is culturally relevant, engaging to clients, and includes the most recent scientific evidence and clinical guidelines. The Gabby System has been the focus of three studies, and results suggest that it can successfully influence health behavior change in users.

Why does it matter?

Although preconception care has improved, health disparities still exist in maternal and child health. Black and African American women are twice as likely as white women to have babies born prematurely or at low birth weight. Research suggests that the disparity may be due to implicit bias of providers, lack of access to health care, poor quality of care, lack of health insurance, and delay of preconception care.

A woman’s health prior to pregnancy is a key determinant in predicting her health during pregnancy and the health of her baby. Improving preconception health is a way to reduce racial disparities in maternal health and birth outcomes.

Common Terms and Definitions:

Health survey- Clients take this 20-30 minute health survey after enrolling in the Gabby System. All survey questions must be answered all at once in one sitting. The content from the health survey will be used to tailor the information on the user’s “My Health To-Do List.” This will be detailed in the next module.

Client- The individuals that you serve at your site. You may refer to them as patients at your site.

Site champion-The project leader who will lead Gabby System implementation and be the point of contact during implementation.